The Question of Loyalty
by Knight of Wings
Summary: AU Tommy is the son of Rita and Zedd, but he has grown up as an orphan, when he moves to Angel Grove, things get a lot more complicated. Who should he be loyal to, the family he's always wanted, but never knew, or the family he's creating.
1. Prologue

Ch 1

**Note: I do not own, Power Rangers. If I did Tommy and Kim never would have broke up, worst decision in Power Rangers. **

**Pairings: Tommy and Kim, some Jason and Trini, oh and Rita and Zedd.**

**Note that this is going to be an AU of the Power Rangers series, mostly focusing on Tommy. Trust me when I say that the AU part of the story will be pretty obvious. **

**The change that is going to be made is that Tommy is the son of the Mystic Mother, Leanna, and her husband a powerful battle mage named, Alric. **

**Other minor changes are that Zedd and Rita are in the same capsule together, they are married, and Thrax has been born, but he won't make an appearance in this fic, maybe one of the sequels.**

**Also there will be no time travel taking place. I dislike it because it complicates the story to unimaginable levels, so any time travel or time alterations that appeared in Power Rangers, does not happen, with the exception of Time Force, because I don't feel right about eliminating an entire season.**

**Note that I am giving personalities to the powers that are related to animals. EX: dino powers, thunder zords, Ninjetti, etc. I will give names to the zords and the spirit animals as they come along. But powers like the Turbo and Zeo won't get any personality.**

-Briarwood 1977-

"You want us to do what Zordon?" Leanna screeched out in complete shock at what the old entrapped wizard wanted her and Alric to do.

"I am serious, it has taken a long time for anyone to have reached a magical power that equals my own, but you have the power to purify Zedd and Rita." Zordon calmly explained.

"It's not that I doubt that I can do it, so much as I am going to have a baby in less than five months, and I do not want my child to be even in the presence of such evil." Leanna proclaimed. At that moment Alric had come in from the forest having just finished a training session with Leanbow earlier.

"What's going on dear?" Alric asked concerned, for she rarely got this angry, and all that anger probably wasn't good for the baby.

"Zordon wants us to go up to the moon and purge Rita and Zedd of their evil, turning them back into normal humans." Leanna explained slowly calming herself from her rant.

Alric turned to look at Zordon. "Why do this now? It will be better to wait until later like after our child is born." Alric questioned.

"Since man has reached out and has begun to explore the moon, I fear that it is only a matter of time before they find and release Rita and Zedd, along with all of their minions."

Alric let out a heavy sigh, seeing the reason in Zordon's plan, but still something inside of him was warning him that this was the wrong thing to do. But then again, if he helped his wife, then everything should work out alright.

"Honey, I think that we should do it, as long as I help you and we double check everything. If we do that, then we should be ok." Alric explained. Leanna quickly turned on him and fixed him with a hard stare. "I'm just saying that Zordon does make a lot of sense, if we can remove the evil from Zedd and Rita, then we can effectively nip the problem in the bud."

Leanna sighed, while she understood the plan, and would normally have gone along with without a second's hesitation. But now she had to worry about her child, and when it came down to it, one's child takes place over a future problem.

"I understand your concerns, but you must understand; if Rita and Zedd escape then they will declare a war of magic with you two. If that happens then you could very well end up like me. Leaving your child bereft of his or her parents." Zordon spoke, capturing the attention and glares of the magical couple.

"You play dirty Zordon. Very well we will remove the evil from Rita and Zedd." Leanna all but growled out.

"I am sorry that it had to come to this, but the sooner their evil is eliminated the safer the planet and your child will be."

"We shall get started. But it is going to take a few weeks to get everything ready." Alric said as he closed the link to Zordon. "It will be alright honey, we are stronger than any dark magic that they may throw at us, and besides; we work together and in tandem and they do not." He said soothing his wife, and rubbing circles across her back.

"I know. But I just don't want any of their evil to even come near to our child." Leanna said. Alric nodded in understanding as he continued to hold her.

-Two Weeks Later On the Moon-

As Alric and Leanna set up the purging circle around Rita and Zedd's prison they reviewed the plan that they had decided on. First they would set up a barrier around the space dumpster turned prison, that would allow only Rita and Zedd to leave the prison. And once they had stepped out they would walk directly into the center of a purging circle. And from there they would drain the evil out of Rita and Zedd, by using their powers in balance to keep the spell working. And once that was completed they will clash the duo's evil essence with their magic and slowly erode the evil into nothing. Finally they would return home, with hopefully two new apprentices.

Leanna placed the barrier around the prison, as her husband cracked the seal and released the two evil sorcerers.

"Finally after nearly ten thousand years we're free!" Rita exclaimed, throwing her hands up in joy.

"Yes my pet. But I wouldn't celebrate yet." Zedd declared as he helped his wife out of the capsule. "For it seems that we have visitors." Zedd stated as he looked towards Leanna and Alric, calling forth his staff, in preparation for some entertainment.

Rita gave a wicked grin as she called forth her wand and stepped forward unknowingly joining her husband in the purging circle. "Well it seems that we shall have some practice before we go after Zordon." Zedd nodded and raised his staff in tandem with Rita's wand, only to stumble, as he felt all of his evil, his hate, rage, and dark powers leave him in a blood red cloud, he looked over to his wife, to see the same was happening to her, with a violet storming cloud.

"NO!" They shouted as they struggled to pull their evil, and powers back into themselves. But they were fighting a losing battle, and soon collapsed in exhaustion.

"Alright Leanna it's time to start erasing the evil." Alric called out, confident in their success. Leanna nodded, but was suddenly feeling very tired, as her child was drawing more energy from her than usual. But she steeled herself and resolved to finish this task.

But there was one thing that no one, not Rita, Zedd, Alric, Leanna, or Zordon had taken into consideration. For the first time, the Dragon coin had chosen a partner, in the unborn child that Leanna carried within her. (1)

With that choice, the circle suddenly erupted in bright emerald green light as the Dragon marked the child as his partner. Unfortunately with the explosion of power that accompanied his choice, the balance of the spell was broken, and the evil of Rita and Zedd took their chance and rushed at and covered Alric and Leanna.

Inside the clouds, the evil of Zedd and Rita joined with Alric and Leanna, effectively reviving the legacy of Lord Zedd and Rita into new bodies. But as the evil surged through their bodies, the child of Leanna and Alric, now Rita and Zedd's, was also affected.

After the evil had finished bonding with Alric and Leanna, Rita suddenly realized that she was pregnant. "Ah Zeddy, it seems that the little magic duo that tried to do us in were going to have a child." Rita stated, as she felt the child within her writhe a little.

"Really?" Zedd asked in surprise. "So I guess that we are going to be parents again, but what is he going to be? A lovable evil brat like our Thrax, or is he going to be a goody-little two-shoes?" Zedd questioned already thinking of how he was going to raise his second son.

"How do you know it's going to be a boy?" Rita asked, as she tried to get a feel for the child's destiny, and attitude.

"Simple I used a spell; that this body knew, but didn't use." Rita nodded, grasping onto the fact that this couple wanted to be surprised.

Rita suddenly gasped in shock as she lifted her head to look at Zedd. "This child is balanced. He can use both sides of magic." Zedd looked at her in shock, knowing that it was exceedingly rare for anyone to be able to use both light and dark magic, with no effects on their psyche or body. The last person to wield both sides of magic was Malkier, but he had died over three thousand years ago, yet tales of what he did and his life were still told and remembered by all wielders of magic.

"He will be a great weapon. Our son shall help us bring about the greatest empire the universe has ever seen." Rita nodded, but turned around as she heard the sound of a flickering flame. Standing behind her stood Leanbow and his wife Udonna, armed with their staffs and sword ready for combat with the new dark mystics.

"He will not be a weapon. And he will never be your son." Leanbow said as he and Udonna prepared for combat.

"Are you sure you want to fight us, after all these bodies used to be your masters and mentors." Zedd proclaimed. Leanbow and Udonna stood strong.

"Maybe we should try a different approach, my dear." Rita exclaimed. "If you fight us you could injure the little baby boy, this nice lady was carrying." The witch said as she gestured to her body. Looking at each other the two mystics knew that she was right.

Zordon who was watching over the happening on the moon, decided to step in. "Leanbow, Udonna. We cannot harm them now, without the threat of harming the child. So I recommend that you place a time delay spell on them. So as soon as the child is born, we can again entrap Rita and Zedd in their prison."

Without a lot of options left the two mystics, with a heavy heart, did as suggested and placed the spell on the ones that used to be their masters. In response Rita and Zedd launched a blast of magic from there wands blowing away the two magicians.

"Stupid fools." Zedd growled. "Your spell didn't even do anything. Now prepare to die." At that moment Zordon teleported the two mystics and the evil purged bodies of Zedd and Rita away from the moon back to the command center.

"I am sorry you two, about the loss of your friends and masters. But at least we have a way to seal Rita and Zedd back into their prison."

"But Zordon," Udonna spoke, "what will happen to their son. That child is special."

"I know that, but as to what will happen to their son, I believe that you two could act as his guardians, until he comes of age." Zordon replied. The couple nodded in agreement silently promising to protect the child of the masters before standing to leave, taking the once Zedd and Rita with them back home, where they might be trained in the ways of good magic.

-Four months later-

Rita screamed as her son finally entered the world. After her child was washed and cleaned, she heard the doctor ask, "So what is his name?"

Zedd turned to look at his wife, knowing very well that they could not give the child either their name or his true parents name if they were to succeed with their plan. Rita spoke up, "He shall be called Thomas James Oliver." Rita suddenly got a strange look in eye as she saw what appeared to be a white falcon perched on her son's right shoulder, and upon his left shoulder stood a green dragon. "Our son is going to be very special." Rita told her husband as she handed her son to the doctor and leaned back to rest. Zedd nodded, knowing that his wife had seen something important about their son.

Zedd settled himself into his chair as he fell into a deep sleep, knowing that he and his wife were about to be returned to their prison. But before he fell asleep, he grinned, knowing that those pests wouldn't find his son, if not forever, then for a long time. In a flash Rita and Zedd were returned to their prison on the moon.

Leanbow and Udonna approached the hospital a few days later having been contacted as the child's god parents. But as they approached the cradle he was placed in, they felt a pulse of magic pass over them. Confused they walked towards him, only to realize that he wasn't there.

-California-

Upon the doorstep of an orphanage Tommy Oliver arrived in a swirl of green and white fire.

**That is the end of the prologue. I had to get the opening started before I can move onto the cooler aspects of the series. **

**1) The Dragon coin has never chosen a person to bond and ally itself with. Its powers are unknown to Zordon and Rita both, but it is known to be the strongest of the power coins. Also I am making the powers sentient; each coin will choose its partner not Zordon. **

**Tommy will get to Angel Grove California, but it will be a roundabout way.**


	2. Reunited

Ch 2

**This chapter will start just before the tournament in "Green with Evil part one" and it will switch point of views quite often.**

**The tournament will be slightly different, as well as the conversations, simply because I am altering it to suit how I want the story to go.**

**Note that when Rita was released, she decided to stay and conquer Earth and make it the capital of their empire, as well as find and collect Tommy, while Zedd went out to conquer more worlds for their empire.**

**I'd like to thank xBeLLeGrEyx, Ghostwriter, oldtvlover, and brankel1 for their reviews.**

**Note: I do not own Power Rangers. If I did Tommy and Kim never would have broke up, which by the way was a stupid move. **

**Pairings: Tommy and Kim, some Jason and Trini, oh and Rita and Zedd.**

**Reunited **

-Angel Grove 1993 -

"Hey guys! Thanks for coming, the support really means a lot to me." Jason Lee Scott told his friends. He had short cropped brown hair cut in a military fashion with brown eyes. He was wearing a red workout shirt with black loose pants in preparation for the final round of the martial arts tournament he was entered in. Unknown to all but his friends and enemies, he was the Red Power Ranger and leader of the Power Rangers.

"No prob man, that's what friends are for." Zack Taylor, Black Ranger and local dance enthusiast assured his best friend. His black hair was trimmed closely to his head as he turned his dark eyes on his friend, patting his back.

"Yeah Jase, we wouldn't miss this for the world." Trini Kwan, Jason's hidden crush, the Yellow Power Ranger added. She wore her black hair long as she smiled at her friend. She wore a light yellow shirt and vest complementing her yellow skirt. Jason nodded his thanks as he tried not to stare too long into her dark eyes. "You have this competition in the bag."

"Thanks Trini, but look at the competition." Jason said, pointing over to a young man with his long brown hair tied up in a green head band, and wearing a green workout shirt and loose black pants. The young man was performing an intense sequence of punches, kicks, and spin kicks.

"He's cute." Kimberly Ann Hart, the Pink Ranger of the team said with a dreamy expression on her face. The entire team turned to stare at their short, pink clad, brown haired and eyed team mate. "What? He is."

"Well despite the shock that Kim has finally found her 'true love' I think that as long as you keep your mind in the game you should do alright." Zack joked, earning him a glare from Kim, before she turned her attention back to the green clad stranger.

"What do you think Billy? Think I can take him?" Jason asked Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger and the brains of the team. Bill passed a hand through his short hair and adjusted his glasses as he turned his attention to his friend's opponent.

Shoving his hands into his denim overalls he commented. "Well, seeing him make his way through the tournament thus far, and the display of skill that he has showcased, I would have to say that, if he were actually focused, then you would be in trouble." Billy said immediately grabbing the group's attention.

"Wait a minute. You're saying that Mister Green over there has made it through the tournament, only paying half attention, and beat some of the best fighters in the area?" Zack exclaimed with disbelief.

"Yeah, but he is also extremely tired and stressed." Kim said, grabbing all of her friends' attention. "I would say that he hasn't had a good restful sleep in who knows how long."

"And how in the world do you know that?" Zack asked. Kim just shrugged.

Seeing that none of this was helping calm her friend, Trini set to task. "Forget about all that. You are the local champion for three years running. You fight monsters almost daily and keep the world safe; you can take this guy."

"Yeah dude, if what they say is true, then you should have no problem wiping the floor with this guy. That'll show him for not paying attention." Zack said, trying to encourage his friend.

"Thanks, guys." Jason said as he felt his confidence start to rise.

"Would the contenders, Jason Lee Scott and Thomas James Oliver, step forward at this time?" The announcer asked.

In accordance with standard policy, the two teens moved to the center of the mat and shook hands before settling into their stances. With a simple, 'begin,' from the referee, Jason sprang into action, throwing punches and kicks at Tommy, who blocked and turned aside the blows almost mechanically as he moved. Tommy suddenly stepped back and snapped his leg out catching Jason square in the chest, sending him to the mat, where Tommy promptly 'tagged' him, earning himself a point.

Jason quickly got up and moved into position again. With another 'begin,' Jason started to throw kicks at Tommy, driving him back toward the edge of the mat. Jason kept moving forward pushing Tommy back until he quickly closed and knocked him out of the ring, effectively tying the match up at one to one. The judge quickly blew the whistle, calling the two fighters back to the center of the ring.

Jason moved back, knowing that the same trick wouldn't work twice, but with his opponent's distracted state, it was too good of a tactic to not attempt. As soon as the judge said 'begin,' Jason started out with an attempt at driving Tommy back to the corner. Tommy, with half a mind, blocked a kick and started to drive Jason back with a series of round house kicks. Jason wasted no time in ducking each kick that was sent his way. Recognizing the combination of moves that he had preformed earlier in his warm-up, Jason snapped a kick at Tommy's chest, sending him to the floor where Jason promptly 'tagged' him and took the lead.

Walking toward the center of the mat, Jason looked at Tommy's face and noticed that it was no longer blank, but that it was focused, and he realized that Tommy finally started to pay attention. From the focused look he was receiving, he would be in trouble, if not for the fact that there were only seven seconds left. At the 'begin,' Tommy leapt into action, throwing a kick at Jason's head causing him to duck, at which point Tommy promptly brought his heel down on top of Jason's head, only for his heel drop to be blocked by Jason's outstretched arm. Reacting swiftly, Tommy quickly removed his leg and spun low, swiping Jason's feet from out under him, sending him crashing to the floor. With his kick completed, Tommy flipped himself above Jason, where he promptly tagged him, tying the match at two.

Jason slowly got up from the ground and noticed that he was taken down in under five seconds. Determined not to lose the match, Jason walked to the center. With another 'begin,' Jason backed away, dodging Tommy's rapid punches, from which he flowed into graceful and powerful kicks. Jason was quickly backed toward the mat's edge in his effort to avoid the fast and heavy blows that Tommy was dishing out. But before Tommy could win by a ring out, the judge blew his whistle, calling the match.

Tommy stopped his onslaught reluctantly and walked towards the judge's side with Jason, where the judge raised both their arms, signifying a draw between the two.

"Man, great match." Jason congratulated Tommy.

"Yeah, you too."

"I'm just glad that time ran out, otherwise, I think that you would have won the match." Jason confessed, as he rubbed his arm where he blocked Tommy's heel kick. Tommy shrugged.

"Didn't really come to win, I just needed to do something familiar to take my mind off the move." Tommy explained.

'So you're new here, then?"

"Yeah, just got in this Friday."

"So are you going to Angel Grove High?" Jason questioned.

"Yeah, signed up just the other day."

"Well, I'll see you around then." Jason said.

"Yeah, I got to get back home, packages to unpack, you know the drill." Tommy said, as he made his way to his bag where he got out his change of clothes and moved off into the showers and changing rooms.

"I told you that you would be in trouble if he got his mind into the game." Billy said as he and the gang walked up to Jason.

"No kidding. That was intense. I mean, I've fought monsters that weren't as tough as him." Jason said, as he continued to rub his arm, trying to rub the soreness out of his arm. "Well, anyway, I have some good news for Kim."

"What's that?" Kim asked in excitement.

"It turns out that Tommy is going to our high school, so you will probably be seeing more of him." Jason said, causing Kim to smile.

"Oh, and there goes your man." Zack said as he pointed towards Tommy leaving the shower area, clothed in a pair of dark green cargos, a white undershirt, and an unbuttoned green over shirt, with his gym bag slung over his shoulder. Kim turned to look as he headed for the exit, in what seemed to be a rush.

"Well, I got to go get cleaned up, so I'll see you guys later." Jason said.

-Angel Grove Orphanage-

"Thomas Oliver, where have you been? I told you to be back by six. It is now half past seven." Alan, the head of the orphanage said as he saw Tommy enter the Orphanage.

"I was at a martial arts tournament. And on the way back from the tournament I kind of got lost." Tommy replied.

Alan sighed and ran a hand through his graying hair. "I know that you are a fan of martial arts, but it is because of fighting you were moved from the orphanages in both Reefside and Blue Bay Harbor. And don't get me started on the fact that you were moved from the Briarwood orphanage after only a week. Seeing as the issues surrounding your move all revolve around you getting into fights, I am afraid that I will have to forbid you from engaging in any martial arts while you live under this roof."

"But Mr. Alan, martial arts is my hobby. It helps me get away from all the stress. And besides I didn't start those fights, I was surrounded and ganged up on." Tommy argued.

"I've heard these kinds of stories before, Mr. Oliver, and I will not be taken in by this one. Besides, what kind of stress would you be under that you resort to violence to escape? Huh? There is no stress that a sixteen year old faces that cannot be worked off by normal sports or other activities." Tommy suddenly clammed up and locked his jaw.

"Nothing, sir." Tommy said as he walked past the director and continued onto his new room that he shared with two fourteen year olds.

As soon as Tommy entered his room, he threw his bag onto his bed, and started to unpack the rest of his things. "_What does he know? He doesn't know me. He's not afraid that he's losing his san …_" Tommy abruptly shuddered as his thoughts brought back to him the nightmares; nightmares so real that he could remember every detail and feeling to the point where they no longer seemed like dreams but rather like visions, or premonitions.

Once Tommy had finished unpacking, he headed downstairs to join the rest of the orphanage for some supper.

-Lunar Palace-

"Ah, my plan is working exactly as planned." Rita crowed as she watched yet again how her son had dominated Jason in the tournament. She couldn't be more proud of his combat prowess, and she knew the only reason that he tied, was because of his efforts at resisting the brainwashing that she routinely preformed on him every night since she and her husband escaped that infernal prison. While he has succeeded in keeping his personality, it was obvious that the mental effort was taking a toll on his body, and after nearly a year of continuous mental struggle, even her son's steel will was beginning to flag.

"What plan, your highness?" Goldar questioned, unaware that any plan was currently going on.

"My son will be joining us shortly." Rita replied with pride. "And with him at our side, we gain the Dragon."

"You don't mean-" Goldar began.

"Yes, my son is the Dragon's chosen." Rita shouted out, shocking all of her minions, as she and Zedd had yet to share this news with any of their minions.

"With the power of the Green Dragon Ranger at our side, nothing will stand in our way." Goldar proclaimed with an evil glint in his eyes, as he thought of the destruction that the boy would bring to the galaxy.

-Angel Grove High Monday-

Tommy entered his new high school somewhat nervous, but mostly too tired to really care about what was going on around him. That is, until he saw two bullies pestering and harassing a petite girl dressed in pink.

"… why don't you two just back off and get a life?" Kimberly said, as she tried to ignore the two bothersome bullies that have been pestering her for years.

"Well, what if we don't want to?" Skull, the skinny black haired youth dressed in chains, black leather, and a choker replied.

"HEY! She said back off. So why don't you two back away and leave the lady alone?" Tommy shouted to the two bullies.

"Look at this, Skull, some new punk trying to butt his nose into where it doesn't belong." Bulk, the heavy-set dude in a purple shirt and leather jacket, said as he and Skull turned their attention from Kimberly to Tommy.

"Well, I guess we will just have to teach this punk some manners." Skull replied.

"Yeah and he's not going to be able to do a single thing about it." Bulk agreed as he shoved Tommy back.

Tommy, now with some distance, dropped his bag and demonstrated for the two bullies one of the combinations that he had practiced. Bulk and Skull, now terrified out of their minds, realized that this was the man that nearly won the martial arts tournament, and quickly turned tail and ran.

"Thanks for that." Kim said once the bullies and the crowd dispersed.

"No problem; they should have backed off when you told them. By the way, my name is Tommy."

"Kimberly." Kim responded as she held out her hand and shook his hand.

As he shook her hand, he felt a wave of peace and belonging flow through him. For the first time in months, he felt like the weight that had been weighing on his mind and soul was suddenly lifted, by the simple touch of Kim's hand.

"So…would you like to hang out later today at Ernie's Smoothie Bar?" Kim asked, smiling, still feeling the sudden rush of rightness that shot through her when she touched Tommy's hand. (1)

"Sure, but first I got to drop off my brothers at home." Tommy said, half lying about the fact that he needed to drop off his two younger roommates off at the orphanage.

"Alright. Well, try to shoot for around 5:00." Kim said, getting a nod and a smile from Tommy.

-Lunar Palace-

"NOO!" Rita screamed with rage.

"What's the matter my queen?" Goldar questioned, nervousness evident in his voice.

"I knew that Kimberly was going to be a problem, but this is unacceptable." Rita screamed.

"What did the Pink Ranger do now?" The golden clad warrior asked.

"Did you know that the Pterodactyl and the Dragon zords are mates?" (2) Rita questioned.

"No. But what does that have to do with the Pink Ranger?"

"My son was chosen by the Dragon long before any of the Power Rangers, so the Pterodactyl chose a partner that it knew would be a perfect mate for my son."

"So your son is going to fall in love with the Pink Ranger."

"Yes, but that's not all. They _will_ be together; nothing short of either of their deaths would keep them apart, and I'm not even sure that will work. (3) They are and will be linked not only by their own love, but by the love of their powers, zords, and I suspect more. This ruins everything!"

"I see why this is troublesome, but your brainwash is still in effect, so you can always make him forget that he ever knew her." Finster, the white skinned monster maker said.

"That's just the problem! Because of his meeting with her, all the stress and weariness left him! It would be like starting all over!" Rita screamed in frustration, as she racked her mind for ideas. After months of mental battle, he was ready. All that it would have taken was a simple submergence in her magic sands, and he would become her loyal and evil son. But now after meeting Kimberly, his mind was refreshed, and it would take at least a month to overwhelm him again. And that was if she did nothing else. She couldn't do this alone. "Alone. That's it. Finster, bring me my magic ball. I need to make a call."

Finster quickly obeyed, rushing off to her work area where she performed the majority of her spells. He quickly returned, carefully holding her magic ball in her hands. "Here you are, my queen."

"Thank you, now leave me. I need to talk to my husband."

-Angel Grove after School-

"Alright, Alex, Brandon, I'll see you guys later and if Mr. Alan asks where I am, I'm at the juice bar hanging out with some people that I met in school." Tommy said to his younger roommates.

"Alright Tommy, we'll see you later, try not to get lost and break curfew or Mr. Alan will cut off more than just your hobby." Alex said.

"Thanks for the reminder. … By the way, what time is curfew here again?"

"Jeez man, curfew is seven so try not to be late." Alex said.

"Thanks, catch you guys later." Tommy said, as he turned away from his roommates and turned to walk to the Juice Bar. After only getting lost once, he arrived at the Juice Bar at 5:15. As he walked in, he immediately picked out Kimberly sitting by herself at the bar, sipping a smoothie.

"Hey, looking lonesome all by yourself, mind if I join you?" Tommy casually asked.

"Tommy! You made it, and here I thought that you weren't coming." Kim said as she gave him a hug.

"Why would you think that?" He asked.

"Well, it's past five, and I just assumed that you weren't coming." She responded.

"Unlike you, I'm still new to this city, so I got lost on my way here, and my house is pretty far from here. … And I might as well say it now before I get in trouble for it; I am often late and forgetful."

"Well I totally understand you getting lost, and being forgetful and late isn't such a bad thing, and now that I know about it, I won't freak out if you are late. Now come on, I want to introduce you to my friends." She said as she grabbed a hold of his hand, feeling that sense of rightness and belonging again, and led him over to a table of her friends. "Now I'm sure that you remember Jason from the tournament. This is my best friend Trini Kwan. This is Billy Cranston, one of the smartest guys in our school, and that is Zack, the self proclaimed best dancer in town." Kim said as she pointed to each of her friends. "And this guy is Tommy Oliver, who I'm sure you all remember from the tournament last weekend."

"Hey man, just want to say, you got some serious moves on you if you can give Jason here a beating like you did." Zack said, as he stood up. "So how 'bout you and me have a little spar?"

"Sorry man, but I'm not allowed to do any martial arts until further notice." Tommy said, getting questioning looks from the group. "Well, I kind of broke my curfew that night, so until I get the say so I am banned from martial arts."

"That's tough man, so what if you join us for a game of basketball?" Jason asked.

"Sure I can play a game or two." Tommy said, only for all of the Power Rangers' watches to simultaneously let out a series of toned beeps.

"Sorry, Tommy, but we got to run, an emergency just came up." Jason said as he and others moved out of the Juice Bar. Kim sent an apologetic look at him, letting him know that they didn't want to ditch him, but followed her friends out of the bar.

"Zordon, we read you." Jason said, once the group was out of sight.

"Rangers, there is a monster running loose in downtown Angel Grove. You must hurry."

"Alright, guys. It's morphin' time."

-Angel Grove High School-

While the rangers were busy with the monster that Rita had sent down, Goldar, who was skulking through their school; was busy causing damage as he walked through the empty building, ensuring that the school would be shut down for at least a week. Looking up, he noticed the sprinklers, suddenly giving him an idea. Goldar raised his sword to the sprinkler and concentrated flames at the end of it, causing all the sprinklers in the school to go off. Laughing in enjoyment at the fruits of his labor, he quickly teleported out of the building and back to the moon in a flash of golden flames.

"My queen, the first phase of your plan has been completed." Goldar said to Rita as he bowed to his queen.

"Excellent. My son has just left the Rangers' hangout. When he is alone, I want you to send down the putties to capture him and bring him back here. And be sure that you bring him back before the Rangers finish off my monster. Now I need to prepare for Tommy's arrival, so don't bother me." Rita ordered as she walked into her magic room, where she began to prepare for the brainwashing.

Goldar quickly strode up to Rita's magic telescope and searched for Rita's son. "Wait a minute. What does he even look like?" Goldar questioned aloud, having not seen the Dragon's chosen yet. "Finster!" Goldar cried out.

"Do you have a problem, Goldar?" The white skinned doctor asked.

"Yes. Do you know what Rita's son looks like?" The golden giant asked.

"No, I have yet to see the young man. But I believe that Rita stored his fight at the martial arts tournament earlier into a permanent viewing sphere." (4) Finster said as he looked around the stored spheres that their queen had recorded. "Ah, here it is." Finster declared, pulling out a green and white sphere from a shelf. "What an unusual color," he declared, handing the sphere over to Goldar.

"Thank you, Finster." Goldar said, as he pushed play on the sphere, instantly showing the fight at the tournament in a medium sized hologram. "Ah, so this is the Dragon's chosen. I see why the Queen was so pleased by her son; he has become a fine warrior. But he seems to have a lot of untapped potential." Goldar mused. "Thank you, Finster; I must get back to my search for this 'Tommy'." Finster nodded his head as he walked back to his lab to begin the process of making more of his special clay.

"Ah, there he is." Goldar said as he spied Tommy walking through an alley leading towards the docks. "Five putties should be enough." Goldar declared as he sent five of Rita's foot soldiers to the planet's surface.

-Angel Grove-

Tommy was walking through an alley in an attempt to take a shortcut back to the orphanage, when he suddenly found himself surrounded by several strange grey blobs. "This is just not my day." Tommy muttered as he dropped his bag to the ground and got into a fighting stance.

The circling putties suddenly closed in, with one attacking from the front and another attacking from behind. Tommy quickly side stepped the rushing Putties, allowing them to tackle each other. Acting quickly, Tommy sent a roundhouse kick to the head of one of the grey minions, ending its fight quickly. Tommy then rushed the still dazed Putty and, grabbing it by the neck, allowed himself to fall back into a roll from where he kicked the minion away, sending it crashing head first into a wall. The remaining putties quickly became serious as they started to swarm Tommy.

The lead putty rushed in and started to trade blows with Tommy, only to be met with effortless blocks and counters. One of the other two putties rushed at Tommy, going for a tackle in an attempt to take out his legs. Tommy saw the grey man charging out of the corner of his eye and back flipped over the minion, bringing his feet up as he flipped, nailing the Putty in the chin.

But as Tommy flipped, he landed right into the arms of another Putty, who immediately began to punch Tommy in the back. Keeping his wits about him, Tommy sent an elbow to the enemy's gut, causing him to be released. Quickly, Tommy dashed away from his captor to attack the Putty that attempted a tackle on him and began a combination of kicks and punches, quickly eliminating the grey minion.

Turning around to finish off the last minion, Tommy suddenly found himself face to face with a newfound force, thirty Putties strong. "You have got to be kidding me." Tommy muttered before charging at the Putties.

-Lunar Palace-

"Finster I need more Putties!" Goldar shouted as he watched Tommy tear through the ranks of putties.

"I'm sorry, but I will not waste my precious clay, only for you to send the Putties to their deaths." Finster argued. "Why don't you go and capture him personally?"

Goldar opened his mouth to argue, but then shut it, seeing Finster's point. Without another word, he slammed his sword into the ground as he teleported to earth in a flash of golden flames.

Upon arrival, Goldar noticed that he only had five Putties left, but he saw that Tommy was exhausted and bruised. "Impressive, young warrior. The Power Rangers didn't fare remotely this well when they first encountered the Putties." Tommy lifted his head and clenched his fist at the sight of the golden warrior. "But you don't have what it takes to beat me."

"So says the guy who only shows up when his opponent is exhausted." Tommy quipped. Goldar glared at the young boy, before he charged in rushing with his sword held high. Tommy quickly rolled under the slash and swept his leg out, attempting to trip his adversary. Goldar quickly flapped his wings, allowing him to avoid the attack.

As he hovered above the ground, he ordered the remaining Putties to attack. Tommy, with his attention split for the moment, never noticed the flat of Goldar's blade coming down on his head. With his objective in hand, Goldar teleported himself and the remaining Putties back to the Lunar Palace.

"My Queen, I have retrieved your son." Goldar announced as he set the unconscious Tommy down in Rita's magic sands.

"Well done, Goldar. Have Finster start making some more of his clay, I want to test my son's powers when he awakes. And make sure that that school the rangers go to stays closed, I don't want anyone to question Tommy's location while Zedd and I work on our son." Rita said, drawing Goldar's attention to the fact that Lord Zedd was indeed in the chamber as well. "Now leave us and do not disturb us, this is going to be a long and delicate process." Rita said.

"But what about the orphanage?" Goldar questioned.

"No need to worry. We 'adopted' our son. (5) So there won't be any problems with the orphanage." Rita said, in clear annoyance that Goldar was still here. The golden warrior quickly caught the hint and departed his King and Queen.

Rita and Zedd stretched out their hands, releasing purple and blood red energy, respectively, at Tommy.

-Power Chamber-

"That has got to be the strangest battle we have ever had." Zack said as he and the other Rangers stood before Zordon.

"No kidding, it was like he was playing defense and was just trying to tire us out." Jason said, agreeing with Zack. The other rangers nodded in agreement.

Kim opened her mouth to say something when she, all of a sudden, felt a chill sweep through her spine, as she heard a voice cry out in anguish, and then she knew, instinctively, that something very wrong was going on.

**End of chapter 2, which is actually the first chapter, considering the other was a prologue.**

**Anyway, the fight scenes were a little hard to write, because I am not used to writing hand to hand combat, but rather combat with weapons, so the next chapter should be better, for that is where the first battle between Tommy and the Rangers take place.**

**1. This is not **_**just**_** a fluffy moment, but it is Kim's Pterodactyl powers reacting to the mark that the Dragon placed on Tommy reenergizing Tommy; as well as their latent Ninjetti spirits calling out to each other. **

**2. In my story the zords were at one point in time were living creatures. The idea carried over from my Zoids fiction.**

**3. Oh and I am not writing a break up between the two, they won't break up period. They would still love only each other and be together in the afterlife. And besides if you read carefully you will know that distance won't be a problem for the couple.**

**4. Think of a round orb about four inches in diameter. Typically there is only one color, but seeing as Tommy is special, he has more than one color.**

**5. Yes Tommy is legally under their care. Don't want you thinking they stole him that would have brought unwanted attention. They just sped the adoption process up though.**

**Be sure to leave a review, I'll answer any questions you have to the best of my ability.**


	3. Awakened Dragon

Ch 3

**Alright this chapter happens a week after the previous one. This is the third chapter of my story, and I promise to all my readers that this story will be finished. **

**Also when the rangers morph they get armor similar to that in the Power Rangers movie. **

**I'd like to thank xBeLLeGrEyx, oldtvlover, brankel1, camilia85560, SYuuri, demonlordnaruto, and Anora Blaze Trueheart for their reviews.**

**Note: I do not own Power Rangers.**

-Lunar Palace-

As Goldar paced along the palace's wall he reflected on all that had happened since he had kidnapped the Queen's son. A week had passed since his fight with the Dragon's chosen. The boy was clearly a very skilled warrior and would be a great asset to their plans of conquest.

When Rita had said that it would take over a week of combined effort from both her and her husband to mold the boy's mind into their liking Goldar thought that she was overestimating the boy's will. The sands that the boy was placed in were specifically designed to bolster Rita's magic, so it should have been a simple quick dip and the boy would have arisen as loyal warrior believing wholeheartedly in their cause. But the cries of frustration that echoed from the Rita's magic chamber testified the boys will. After a week of constant mental attacks and torture that would have crumbled most men within minutes the process was finally complete.

There was no need for a scream of joy and triumph because everyone across this sector of the galaxy felt the pulse of power. A power whispered and coveted by all who knew about it, the power of the Dragon fully binding itself to its chosen partner.

Goldar, along with all the other minions of Rita rushed to the entrance of her magic chamber waiting to see their newest ally. The large intricately carved black marble doors creaked open as Rita and Zedd walked out of the chamber, utter exhaustion clearly painted on their faces. But the gold clad titan didn't dwell on the haggard appearance of his mistress and master for long. No, his attention was grabbed by the young man walking behind the two evil magicians. The teen was clothed in a pair of forest green cargo pants with golden stitching crawling down his right leg proclaiming in a long forgotten tongue that he was the Dragon's chosen. He wore a white t-shirt that had a small silver falcon in flight that shined in the dark palace; over this he had on an open loose plain green hooded jacket. And hanging from his neck on a simple black cord hung the Dragon coin, crackling with emerald sparks that reflected in the boy's now changed glowing emerald eyes. (1)

Leaning heavily on her wand Rita turned to face her son and questioned him. "Tell me Tommy how do you feel?"

Tommy brought his gaze to the exhausted witch. "I feel powerful mother. I feel the power of Caldazar combining with my own."

"Excellent, Finster why don't you show our son to his room. He will need his rest for tomorrow's attack on the Power Rangers. And while you're at it, why not let him practice on your putties." Rita commanded. Finster bowed and led the young man down the halls of the palace explaining that his room was actually in a pocket dimension and held a library of all the spell books his parents had collected.

Rita and Zedd turned their attention to their minions who were waiting on their orders. "The Rangers are no doubt very suspicious of the long break that we have given them. While their nerves are sure to be wearing on them, we are better prepared than ever. I can see from your stance Goldar, that you are finally full refreshed from your long stay in the prison. Finster has had more time to gather his clay for his monsters, and with our son on our side we are ready to bring the Rangers down for good!" Zedd exclaimed rousing the minions for the battle to come.

Rita quickly silenced her minions with a look before she too spoke. "There are certain things that you are not to mention to our son. First and foremost you are never to reveal that Kimberly is the Pink Ranger, if you do then there is no telling what will happen. I have told him the identities of the Red, Yellow, and Blue Rangers, but he must not know who the others are.(2) Second he believes that he was trapped in the prison with us and when released was lost on earth, and it took us this long to find him and bring him back. So do not mention anything about his past at all. Is that understood?" Rita asked.

A chorus of yes mistress echoed throughout the room before Goldar brought forward a question. "My queen, if I may ask what has happened to Tommy's eyes? And why is there another mark of power on your son?" Goldar asked, referring to the falcon he noticed on the boy's shirt.

Rita frowned as she debated on answering the question. Looking to Zedd for advice she received a slight nod. "My son's eyes have changed because it is a physical mark of the Dragon. Every fully bonded Ranger has a mark of some sort signifying their connection to a power, but Zordon has put into place a block that is keeping the powers from fully bonding to the rangers. But now with the Dragon active and awake I guarantee that the Pterodactyl will all but shatter that block to bond with Kimberly. As for the falcon … it seems that Tommy has a Ninjetti Spirit inside him." Goldar and the other minions gaped at the news. "It has not fully awakened, but during the brainwashing he reached out and awoke his spirit, but before he could even begin to bond we forced it back to its slumber. If we did not, then we would have needed Dark Scepter's help in brainwashing the boy. Regardless of that the Falcon still partially marked him; he will have to place an illusion spell on his eyes to avoid suspicion."

"So what _is_ your plan then your majesties?" Finster asked having returned from dropping off Tommy. Rita gave a wicked grin as she proceeded to explain.

-Earth-

The Power Rangers sat around at their usual table at Ernie's discussing Kim's infatuation with Tommy and the lack of attacks from Rita when they felt a wave of power pass through them. Everyone immediately sat up straighter. Jason, Zack, and Trini tensed as they felt the immensity of the power passing through them. Billy furrowed his brows as he compared the power to everything that he has come up against. And Kim, she wore a bright smile on her face.

"Okay what was that?" Zack asked. Billy opened his mouth to give a response, but their communicators gave a beep quickly grabbing everyone's attention. After giving a quick look around for any eavesdroppers Jason opened up the communication channel.

"What's up Zordon?" Jason asked.

"You must get to the Command Center right away. I fear that the war with Rita has taken a turn for the worst." Zordon said in a grave voice.

"Alright Zordon, we're on our way." Quickly the five teenagers left the Juice Bar and after finding an empty alley they teleported to the Command Center.

When the teens arrived in their base they immediately took note of Zordon's worried look. "Ah Rangers it is good to see you. I have some extremely important news for you. No doubt you felt the wave of power that was recently released."

Billy spoke up and voiced the concerns of most of the group. "What was it Zordon? It felt familiar, but I know I would have remembered having encountered anything that powerful."

"The reason that it felt familiar is because what you felt was the binding of the Dragon to its chosen partner. But wha-"

"Caldazar is a he not an it!" Kimberly interrupted. Everyone stared at her in confusion, before she realized what she said. "Sorry guys, I don't know what came over me."

Trini came over and gave her a pat on the back. "Don't worry about it Kim, we've just been under a lot of stress. Right Zordon?"

The inter-dimensional wizard hesitated before speaking. "I fear that young Kimberly's reaction confirms what I already knew. It appears that when the Pterodactyl, Ellisande, felt the Dragon, Caldazar, fully bond with his partner she began to break down the barrier that I have put in place to keep you from fully bonding with your powers. The evidence is in the pterodactyl that is now on your right shoulder."

Alarmed Kim turned and sure enough there was a small pink pterodactyl about three inches tall emblazoned onto her skin like a tattoo. She quickly turned to her mentor and asked, "Zordon, what does this mean?"

"The mark is no cause to worry. It is simply a mark identifying to all who are knowledgeable about such things that you are Ellisande's chosen partner. Every fully bonded ranger has a physical mark of some sort on them." Zordon replied.

"Whoa time out man. First off what does Kim's random outburst have to do with the power we felt? And secondly, can you explain what you mean by 'bonding'?" Zack burst out.

Zordon eyed each of the Ranger's carefully paying particular attention to Kimberly who after calming down seemed to be in communication with Ellisande. "First off the bonding that I refer to is when the power makes a permanent connection to you. You gain a telepathic link with your Zord, which are in fact fully intelligent and were once flesh and blood creatures, before they chose to take on their present forms in order to protect the Earth. Ithai the Tyrannosaurus, Lin the Saber Tooth Tiger, Rotem the Triceratops, Fannar the Mastodon, Ellisande the Pterodactyl, and Caldazar the dragon. I have blocked the bonding process, allowing you the chance to quit at anytime you wished. If I didn't then if and when you left the power coin would not work for anyone else." As he said this he noticed the looks of hurt on many of the rangers' faces.

Jason stepped forward and questioned their leader. "Zordon, do you really think that we would abandon the fight in the middle? We won't leave the fight unfinished."

"I know that, but I do not want you to be tied down by these powers. And no I will not remove the barrier. If your dinosaur chooses to break the barrier and bond with you then so be it. But I will not force four young teens to take on these powers permanently. Now Kim's outburst is a result of the Pterodactyl breaking through the barrier I have set to fully bond with Kimberly. The reason for this is because the Dragon and the Pterodactyl are mates, in fact they were before they even became zords, and as such the spirit's partners are also mates."

Jason and the rest of the rangers stared at their blushing friend in wonder before Kim spoke up. "This is a little much to take in. So when are we going to meet the new ranger? And why haven't you ever mentioned anything about another power coin?"

"I have not mentioned the Dragon coin because it is not in my possession. It is in Rita's." At this everyone shuddered at the thought of an evil ranger. "I am sure that you will be meeting the new ranger very soon. As to whom the Dragon chose; I simply have no idea. But whoever that person is, they must be exceptional. I would be very cautious of the Dragon Ranger seeing as no one has any idea of the extent of the power that he will wield."

Kimberly opened her mouth to argue but closed it immediately when she heard Ellisande's voice soothing her. "_You don't have to worry, Caldazar is not evil, and he would never choose an evil partner._"

"But Zordon isn't it possible that whoever Caldazar chose stole the coin? And even if he was evil, he would need a morpher and I doubt that Rita has one of those." Kimberly pointed

Seeing Kimberly's reaction Zordon continued. "While that is a possibility, it is highly unlikely. The Dragon coin is her most closely guarded possessions. But you do bring up a valid point about the morpher situation. Regardless of this fact, you must be wary and if a fight breaks out you mustn't hold back, or else you will not survive. For one of the few things that is known about the Dragon coin is that it is the strongest of all the power coins, and is counted as being one of the strongest and most coveted powers in the universe. Now that you have been informed of the threat you should be getting back home, after all I hear that school is opening tomorrow."

-The Next Day-

The Power Rangers arrived at their school to see most of the class had already entered the school. "So did you guys ever hear what happened to cause the school to shut down?" Zack asked.

"I heard that the sprinkler system went off and soaked the entire school, as well as some extensive vandalism." Billy answered. "But regardless of whatever happened we should head on inside unless we wish to get detention." The others nodded and quickly headed to their lockers.

After grabbing her books Kimberly saw Tommy at his locker and walked over to talk to him. "Hey Tommy, where were you last week, I kept expecting you to come over to the Youth Center to hang out."

After grabbing the last of his books and stuffing them in his bag he turned to face his new friend. "Sorry Kim, but my parents wanted me to help out with the unpacking, and since school was closed I've been stuck moving furniture, painting, and fixing our new house all week long. Trust me though, I would have loved to get out of the house and hang out with you." Tommy replied causing Kim to blush lightly.

"Well anyway, if you're not busy after school how 'bout you hang out with us again after school at Ernie's?"

"Sounds great, and since my parents lifted the ban on martial arts I'll be able to spar with Zack and Jason." Kimberly tilted her head signaling for him to explain. "Well after all the help I gave them over the week they decided that I have had enough punishment and so they decided to let the ban slide. So anyway I was planning on going to the harbor tomorrow to go scuba diving, and I wanted to know if you and Zack wanted to come."

Kimberly's mouth opened in shock at the boy in front of her. "Well I think I need to ask my parents for permission, but why do you want to go scuba diving?"

Sending a smile her way he closed his locker and started to walk to his class. "I'll tell you when you give me your answer." He said as he fished an old looking green leather book from his bag.

Kimberly stood in the hallway in complete shock until Trini came up and tapped her on the shoulder knocking her out of her stupor. "Hey, what's got you all shocked and frozen?"

Glancing at her best friend Kimberly decided to confide what had just happened as they walked towards their class.

-Lunar Palace-

Rita growled to herself as she watched her son make plans with the pink ranger. She had just gotten him back after sixteen years and already this little pink brat was stealing him away. Calming herself she thought of how to approach this situation. "I could send Goldar down after they leave the school, keeping him from bonding even more with the little brat. But I have a feeling that those little Power Rangers are going to be in for a rude awakening when they spar with my son. Goldar!" Rita screeched as she summoned the golden titan.

"Yes your highness?" The golden creature asked.

"I need you to watch my son. He is going to the ranger's hangout where it is likely that he will spar with the rangers. I want you to head out and drag the ranger's attention after you see them start to lose their confidence."

"Are you sure that this is the wisest action, after all won't your son be tired after a fight?"

"There is no need to worry, that won't be an issue. My son is in excellent condition and once he learns that he will be removing Zordon from the Earth… Well I don't think fatigue of any kind will affect his performance in battle." Rita said with a grin.

Goldar smiled as he let out a loud bellow. "Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons. Zordon deserves what is coming to him, no matter how you look at it."

-Angel Grove-

Tommy sat at his desk lost in his book that he had taken from his new room. Throughout the day he had been reading up on the spells that were written in a language that he knew that he had never even seen before today, but he assumed that because of his bonding with Caldazar that he had gained knowledge of several different languages. But before he could continue with his musings he heard the dismissal bell sound.

Snatching himself from his reverie Tommy packed up his book and headed for the front of the school where Zack had told him to meet up with the others. Steeling himself so that he wouldn't simply end the three rangers immediately he headed off.

Arriving at the front of the school he saw the group waiting for him. Walking towards the group he started to note of how close Jason and Trini stood together. Grinning he called out to the group earning a bright smile from Kimberly and various greetings from the others. As they made their way towards the youth center Kim and the others were pointing out some of the various stores and locations.

As the group of six entered the building they quickly made their way towards a table where they placed their stuff before heading towards the mats. "So Kimberly told us that your ban has been lifted, what do you say to a round of sparring?" Zack asks.

"Yeah why not, it would be nice to spar with someone rather than practice all alone. But why not this time we try to fight with weapons?" Tommy suggested.

Jason paused as he looked around at his friends seeing what they thought of the idea. Getting a nod from the girls and smiles of excitement from the others Jason agreed. "So what kind of weapon will you be using?" Jason asked as he, Tommy, and Zack made their way towards the Karate club's practice weapon storage.

"I think that I'll go for a staff, it's been awhile since I have used one." Tommy said as he pulled a seven foot tall black staff. Exiting the closet he walked toward the practice mats where he began warming up while he waited for Jason and Zack. He knew that Jason would bring out a sword but he was curious to what Zack would choose to use.

Breaking his practice he looked up to see surprisingly that both Jason and Zack carried swords. "Alright are you guys ready. The rules are that a hit on each area counts as a point." Tommy said as he pointed to the chest, ribs, and the neck. "Try to avoid swinging at the head. Disarming earns one point. Three hits and you're out. Last one standing wins, any questions?"

In response the two rangers began to split up and circle Tommy. Having none of that Tommy leaped from his position and brought his staff to bear on Jason. Jason quickly parried the staff, only to have Tommy whip the other end around taking him in the ribs. Moving quickly Tommy turned his attention to Zack who was charging at him; raising his staff he blocked Zack's overhead slash and quickly pivoted the weapon bringing one end to Zack's arm causing him to back away in pain. Before he could get too far though Tommy swung his staff low sweeping his friend off the ground, where he promptly tagged him at his chest before tumbling into a roll to create some distance between him and a recovered Jason.

Jason paused in his attack as he waited for his friend to regain his feet. With a quick roll the Black Ranger got to his feet and with a nod towards Jason they charged at Tommy. Jason went for a horizontal slash only for his blade to be repulsed by the staff. Working fast now Tommy whipped the staff around faster and faster, blocking swords, turning slashes away, and bringing his staff down on any limbs that entered his range. After a minute of this Tommy snapped one end out at Zack's weapon sending it flying toward one end of the mat. Backing away from Tommy's staff Zack ran towards his blade. With only Jason as a threat at the moment Tommy brought all of his speed out, attacking Jason from nearly all angles. In desperation Jason lunged with a thrust that was quickly stopped when he got caught in the ribs by Tommy's staff.

Zack seeing that Tommy's back was to him rushed forward. Hearing Zack's footfalls Tommy whipped the staff around with his right hand near the end of the weapon around his back scraping Zack across the chest, and completing the move by brining the end all the way around nailing Jason in the side, effectively brining the match to an end.

Jason stared up at Tommy clutching his side until Tommy offered a hand up. After being pulled up Jason noticed the entire Youth Center was silent, and that everyone was staring at the three in shock and awe. The silence was broken when Kimberly and Trini started clapping, earning the three a round of applause from the impromptu audience.

After the applause died down the three teenagers walked over to the others. But before they even reached the table Tommy heard a familiar six tone beep. Looking over at Jason he noted that it was his watch that was beeping. Jason turned his attention to Tommy. "Sorry man, looks like another emergency has come up. We'll see you tomorrow." Jason said as he, Trini, and Billy dashed out of the building.

Kimberly and Zack stayed a bit. "Tommy, there is a chance that we could finish this quickly. Do you think that you could wait for an hour for us?" Zack gave a nod agreeing with his shorter friend.

"Yeah I'll wait. In case I don't see you guys again today, I just want to remind you guys to ask about the scuba diving." Tommy replied earning a bright smile from Kim and a chuckle from Zack as they exited the Youth Center to go see what the emergency was.

A few minutes after the rangers had left Tommy heard his mother's voice in his head. "_Tommy, it's now time for you to take our revenge on that meddlesome fool Zordon. You are to enter the Command Center and destroy the place._" Anyone who was looking closely at Tommy would have noticed his eyes turn green as he smiled in anticipation.

Getting up from his seat Tommy made his way to the shower room where after hiding inside a shower stall he quickly morphed into the Green Ranger. Quietly calling upon the power of Caldazar he let it wash over him in a series of green sparks and in a brief flash of green light, Tommy was the Green Ranger. Smiling at his success he noted that his uniform had a golden vest with a large diamond on the front of it over the green and white armored uniform, as well as gold bands circling his arms. But he realized that his black weapon holster was empty. Calling upon his magic, he quickly teleported away from the center in burst of emerald lightning.

Arriving in the Power Ranger's Command Center in a flash of green lightning, Tommy quickly drew the attention of Alpha and Zordon. Raising his hand Tommy released a burst of emerald lightning at the poor robot sending him crashing to the other side of the building. With the servant eliminated he turned his attention towards Zordon who was gazing down at Tommy. "I know what you came to do Tommy, but you must stop. Let us help you."

Gazing up at the ancient wizard with hands clenched crackling with lightning he spoke up. "There's nothing that you can say that will stop me old man. Besides you deserve this after what you have done to my family." Realization came to Zordon's eyes as he realized that he was staring at Leanna and Alric's son. But before the wizard could do anything Tommy thrust out his hands sending his emerald lightning crashing through the Command Center frying circuits and overloading various systems. Moving from that he walked over to the control boards and started to rip apart the systems causing even more damage to the delicate systems before he turned his attention to Zordon's warp tube which was empty showing that at the very least the wizard was lost among the dimensions of the universe. Satisfied with the destruction Tommy turned his attention to the viewing globe where he noticed the rangers beginning to summon their Zords near the coast line to fight Goldar.

-Battle Field-

With the Megazord assembled the rangers prepared to attack Goldar, only for the golden titan to teleport away in a flurry of golden flames. "Billy I need you find out what's going on. Goldar wouldn't disappear before a fight had even started." Jason ordered. Billy complied and started to use the scanners of the Megazord to search for anything strange. But before he could even commence the scan all the rangers heard a thump as something landed on the Megazord. They quickly swiveled in their chairs to stare in horror as the door to the cockpit slid open letting the Green Ranger in. Trying to move to repulse the intruder, they were all thrown out of their Megazord as the Green Ranger promptly kicked the five teens from their stations out onto the ground below.

Slowly collecting themselves from the fall Kimberly was the first to notice the Green Ranger leaping from the Megazord. "Heads up guys!" Kim called out warning the other rangers to the presence of their attacker. Quickly positioning themselves in a star formation with Jason on point they readied for a whole new kind of battle.

Tommy quickly leaped at the Red Ranger kicking him to the side with a direct kick at his already damaged ribs sending him to the ground, earning a cry from Trini. Letting his body fall into a roll Tommy placed himself in the middle of the other rangers challenging them to attack him. With a growl of anger Trini leapt at him with a kick at his head. Tommy raised his arm to block the kick and responded in kind sending Trini sprawling on the ground with her head ringing. Turning quickly he caught the Pink Ranger's fist with his left hand before backhanding the ranger across the face with his right. Before he could continue his attack on Pink Ranger he turned his attention to the Black Ranger who leapt from a rock coming down with a heel drop. Tommy simply turned to the side dodging the blow and getting inside the ranger's guard. Moving swiftly he sent an elbow to the ranger's back before sending him crashing to the ground with a kick to the spine.

As he prepared to continue his attack on the Black Ranger he heard a growl. Turning his attention to the noise, he noticed that the Yellow Ranger had picked herself up with the help of the Blue Ranger. Taking advantage of the situation Tommy leapt into the air scissoring Trini's head with his legs while at the same time grabbing Billy's neck, and with a single twisting motion threw both rangers to the ground, where he noticed the Yellow Ranger grabbing her neck, apparently he nearly snapped it. Hearing Jason roar in anger he turned to face the Red Ranger, noticing him pulling out his Blade Blaster. As Jason went in for a slash with the small blade, Tommy sidestepped and slammed his elbow on Jason's wrist causing him to drop the weapon. While Jason clutched his wrist in pain he was quickly sent to the ground again by Tommy's other elbow slamming into his gut sending him to the ground yet again. With Jason down again Tommy quickly scooped up the dropped blaster and turned ducking under a frenzied slash by Trini. Backing up quickly Tommy dodged and parried her strikes until she overextended herself, prompting him to quickly slash at her arm, before pivoting on his heel and bringing the blade across her chest sending her sprawling to the ground.

With the Red and Yellow Rangers down Tommy turned his attention towards the others in time to see that the Pink Ranger was coming in for a jump slash. Reacting swiftly Tommy grabbed the descending arm catching the blade before it connected with his body before slashing the Pink Ranger with his stolen weapon. Pivoting around he blocked the Blue Ranger's blade with his own before sending a flurry of slashes at Billy causing him to back up in panic. Pressing his advantage, Tommy doubled his speed and slashed the helpless Blue Ranger across the arm before following it up with a thrust at the ranger's chest before he let Billy fall to the ground in pain. Turning swiftly at the sound of heavy foot falls Tommy proceeded to engage the Black Ranger in a quick blade duel that ended with the ranger tumbling to the ground clutching his chest.

Leaping away from the rangers Tommy watched with amusement as they all struggled to regain their footing. Jason was the first to his feet and stepped in front of his friends. "Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size!" Jason shouted spreading his arms in challenge.

"Gladly." Tommy replied, before throwing his stolen Blade Blaster at the Red Ranger nailing him in the chest causing him to stumble back into the arms of his friends. Smiling in anticipation Tommy gathered his energy into a green ball that crackled with some of his emerald lightning, before he threw the orb of energy into the center of the rangers. The explosion of green energy and lightning sent all the rangers to the ground unconscious and brought them to the limit of their morphs. "It seems that you're not at my level little rex." Tommy said to the oblivious Red Ranger as he charged another orb of green energy in his hands in preparation for finishing them off. As he prepared to release the orb he heard a roar echo through his mind in warning. Startled at the sound he let the orb collapse before teleporting back to the Youth Center to wait out the rest of his hour in a burst of emerald lightning, leaving the rangers sprawled on the ground in pain.

A minute after the Green Ranger left the Power Rangers' morphs broke startling the five teens back to consciousness, while leaving the five teens groaning on the ground in pain. When they finally got to their feet Jason tried to call Zordon, but he received only static. Groaning in annoyance he pressed the teleport feature on their communicators, but when nothing happened they knew something was up. "Guys we need to get to the Command Center, something's up. And with teleportation down we will have to walk back." Jason said.

"Wait; let me ask Ellisande if she will give us a lift back to the Command Center." Kimberly said as she entered into a mental conversation with her Zord. "She says she'll carry us there, but we'll have to make our own way back home. There's something she wants to check on."

"Well that's better than nothing." Zack said, getting nods of agreement from the others. And with a quick summon by Kimberly the gang limped into the Zord clutching bruises they received from the Green Ranger, before taking off for the Command Center.

**Hoped you liked the third chapter of my story. I think that the fight scenes were better, but I must say that I am not used to writing a fight scene with a staff. Regardless, of that, I must say that I enjoyed writing this chapter. **

**Next chapter more complications will arise for both Tommy and the other rangers.**

**Be sure to leave a review and tell me what you think.**

**1) The change in Tommy's eyes is permanent, but it is usually hidden behind an illusion. So when the other characters see Tommy's eyes flash green it is when the illusion slips, this typically happens when he is upset. But he can do it on purpose.**

**2) Tommy believes that the Black and Pink Rangers are robots of some sort, using the power. The reason why Zack wasn't revealed was that Tommy would be suspicious of the Pink Ranger's identity if he knew four of five friends were rangers.**


	4. Son of Magic

Ch 4

**Note: I do not own, Power Rangers. If I did Tommy and Kim never would have broke up. **

**The chapter title is in reference to how Tommy shows more of his powers, as well as his relationship to his parents; aka he is the son of both Rita and Zedd, powerful wizards. **

**This chapter will deal with some of the repercussions from the last chapter. Enjoy the fourth chapter of Questions of Loyalty.**

**I'd like to thank xBeLLeGrEyx, brankel1, Ghostwriter, Anora Blaze Trueheart, Corny Nighthawk3078, oldtvlover, pinkcheer, and soundwave-82 for their reviews.**

**The fight scene in this chapter is told from the Power Rangers pov. Also this chapter is completely my own.**

**This chapter is being posted early because I am going back to college this Friday, and I'm unsure if I will be able to post it on time. Anyway, the next chapters may come out alittle slower since I'll be at college, but rest assured I will attempt to post the rest of the chapters every Friday.**

-Command Center-

After Ellisande had finished dropping the five teens off, the Pterodactyl Zord flew off in a hurry towards the sea. As the rangers made their way towards the hidden entrance they all noticed that the emergency lights on, indicating that something had indeed happened. When they reached the door to the center, Billy hit the manual override for the door, allowing them to force the unpowered door open. When they saw the Command Center they almost wished they hadn't opened the door.

Kimberly and Trini let out a small shriek of horror as they stared at destruction. The computer counsels were ripped open and smashed, with broken and ripped strands of wiring and computer boards showing through the gaping holes that covered the counsels. Black marks and craters dotted the walls of the Command Center showing signs of what the rangers could only assume to be lightning damage. The teleportation rods were damaged extensively. The globes on top of the rods were overloaded leaving glass shards all over the room; the rods themselves were bent and cracked leaving the delicate wires hanging loose with no protection. Mercifully the Viewing Globe was intact. But from the flickering emergency lights, it seemed as though getting power to anything would be a problem. Leaning against the wall in a crumpled heap laid Alpha whose body was covered in scorch marks. But what immediately drew everyone's attention was the fact that the tube where Zordon usually resided was empty.

After a minute of horrified silence the group of rangers carefully moved into the room. Billy moved through the shards of glass before coming to the generator. Looking at it he noted that it had largely escaped unharmed, only receiving minor damage from the lightning, as it was hidden under Zordon's warp tube. Within a few minutes he had rebooted the generator and brought the base's main lighting back online. After he finished with the generator he turned and noticed that the others were busy trying to clean up the place. Jason was assisting Trini with moving Alpha to an empty table that Zack had brought out from the storage room along with all the tools and replacement parts that they currently had stored. Kimberly was busy sweeping up all the glass on the floor.

Once Jason and Trini had set Alpha down on the table the Red Ranger began to pace. "Billy I need you to tell me what's working and what's not, as well as how long all this is going to take to repair." Jason said as he slipped into his commander role.

"The generator is running again, but most of the systems are down. The Viewing Globe is undamaged, and should be functioning. The security systems are down so that will have to be the first thing that will need to be fixed; I can reset and improve our security in a few hours. As for everything else, well from what I can see … it appears as if all the electronics and computer chips are totaled. Every wire, circuit, and probably every board are going to have to be replaced. If I have the right parts, I could probably get it done in about three days if I don't have to rewire everything. Alpha is damaged, and I have no idea of how badly, but I think that Trini can start repairing the little guy by herself. Teleportation is down, and that will need to be fixed as fast as possible. If I can find the plans for the system I should be able to get it up and running fairly quickly. The major problem with all these repairs is that I'm afraid that there might not be enough parts to repair everything. But in all reality we are lucky that he didn't know about or check any of the other rooms." Billy explained as he gazed forlornly at all the damage.

Jason nodded grimly. "But what about Zordon, do you know where he is?"

Billy sighed as he tucked his hands into his trousers and gazed at the empty warp tube. "Whoever did this cut Zordon's connection with our dimension, so he's likely wandering lost through all the dimensions trying to find us. I don't know how long it will take to find him. Or even if we can find him."

"Man we know who did this." Zack piped up as he returned from another trip from the storage area with another armload of gear. Jason and Trini nodded in agreement. "It was that new green guy."

"Yeah, no one else could have done this. But how did that jerk do all those things?" Jason pondered. "Kim does Ellisande have anything to say about the Dragon and what he can do?"

Kimberly dumped another load of glass into the trash can before turning her attention inward. "_Hey Ellisande, I need to know more about Caldazar. Is there anything that you know that would help us?_"

"_I'm afraid that I can't offer much guidance. But I do know this; that whoever Caldazar chose is not the same as he was a week ago. Something is wrong with the Green Ranger._" Ellisande replied carefully.

"_What do you mean?_"

"_I don't know, but you must be cautious. You have only seen a small bit of his power._"

Shaking her head in disappointment Kimberly repeated what her Zord told her before she and her friends went back to work cleaning the Command Center well into the night.

-Lunar Palace-

Goldar strode into the audience chamber of the palace only to see Rita pacing angrily around the room throwing blasts of magic left and right as she muttered under her breath. Pausing a moment he debated on whether he should announce his presence to the visibly irritated queen. But that decision was taken away from him when Rita brought her head up and caught sight of him. The gold titan squared himself and stepped forward giving the queen a sweeping bow. "How may I serve you my queen?"

After a short pause Rita motioned for Goldar to stay as she continued to pace around the room. "My queen, is there something wrong?"

"Yes." The witch snapped. "My son is for all practical purposes courting that pink brat." Goldar looked puzzled at this. From what Rita had told him he figured that this would happen, so he didn't understand what the problem was. "And it seems that both her presence and the Dragon are helping to remove the brain washing. That's why he didn't finish off the rangers earlier." Rita growled in anger. "I won't lose my son. Not again." She whispered.

Goldar nodded in answer. While never having children of his own, he could imagine the pain that she was going through, and with Zedd on the other side of the universe overseeing their empire, she was probably under a lot of stress. "My queen, I have a suggestion." The golden armored titan announced, immediately bringing her attention. "Why not give your son the Sword of Darkness. It should stop at least the Dragon's influence and keep him from reverting any further to the way he was before."

Rita nodded in thought. "Yes, you're right. The evil of the sword should block even Caldazr's power. And maybe even Kimberly's influence. Well done Goldar." Rita complimented as she strode out of the audience chamber and towards Finster's workshop. "Finster! I want you to bring me the Sword of Darkness. I plan on giving it to my son to wield."

The white elfish scientist nodded with enthusiasm before rushing off to one of his storage rooms. When he returned he presented the blade to Rita. As Rita took the sword in hand Goldar took the chance to admire the blade. The sword in general was dull silver with a red tassel hanging off the hilt and a large red eye at the base of the blade. The blade itself was slightly curved only extending about a foot and a half, but the blade was literally dripping with dark magic. If there was anything that would keep Tommy the way he is, it would be the Sword of Darkness.

Rita smiled down at the blade before returning to her audience chamber ordering Goldar to fetch her son from his room and bring him to her. (1) Goldar nodded his assent as he teleported to Tommy's dimension in a flash of golden flames.

When Goldar arrived in the dimension, he had to immediately duck a burst of green lightning and white fire. Turning towards the location of the attack he quickly realized that Tommy was in the midst of practicing his magic, as evidenced by not only the attacks that he narrowly dodged, but also by the many books that Tommy had lying open. "If you're done fooling around, your mother wants to see you in her audience chamber."

Tommy's glowing emerald eyes bore into Goldar before he nodded and teleported out of his dimension and into the palace with Goldar following close behind. When they arrived at the door to the chamber Goldar glanced over at the young warrior who looked calm and ready for anything that his mother would throw at him.

But that notion was quickly dissolved for when he entered the room he was not met with angry shouts or disappointed silence from his mother, but rather he was thrown a wide beaming smile from her. "Ah Tommy, come here I've got a gift for you." Rita said as she motioned for Tommy to come closer. "I was so impressed by your battle with those annoying Power Rangers that I feel that you have earned a very special gift." She explained as she brought out the Sword of Darkness and presented it to her son. When he reached out for the blade he heard another roar of warning in his mind again, but aside from a minute pause he disregarded the roar and took the blade from his mother.

As Tommy held the blade he immediately felt a sense of power that seemed to rush inside him, but at the same time he was met with a deafening silence from Caldazar. Shrugging off his unease he smiled in satisfaction as he gave the blade a few swings to adjust to its weight. When he was satisfied with the weapon he turned to Rita. "Thank you mother, with this sword I will destroy the Power Rangers and add Earth to our empire." Tommy said before teleporting back to his dimension to practice with his new weapon. (2)

-Next Day-

As Tommy walked into Angel Grove high school he caught sight of Jason and Trini leaning against each other on a bench outside all but sleeping where they sat. Looking at the semi-couple he suddenly saw a new way to attack the Power Rangers. Chuckling at his plan he walked towards his locker passing by Billy who was so out of it he seemed to be running on muscle memory alone. He smiled as he realized the three must have stayed up way late past their curfews trying to repair the damage that he had done to their precious Command Center.

After he closed his locker once he had finished collecting his books he noticed that Kimberly was standing there waiting for him to notice her. "Hey Kimberly. Are you alright, you look pretty tired."

"Hey Tommy. Yeah, I'm fine, it's just that I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, I … well I had a pretty bad nightmare last night."

Tommy nodded in sympathy as he remembered some of the nightmares that had plagued him in the past. "So, not trying to pry or anything, but was it a recurring nightmare, or was it a new one?" He asked genuinely concerned for her well being.

Kimberly eyed him for a moment before explaining that the nightmare was a new one that she had never had before, but since she had so little sleep the night before she didn't think that she should go scuba diving. Tommy nodded in understanding before commenting that if she needed to share her fears, he would be there to help her. She blushed at that before thanking him and hurrying off to her class, after stopping by to wake up Trini and Jason who had by now fallen asleep. Tommy chuckled at his enemy's plight before heading off to his own, pausing to shake Zack out of a daze that was caused by a black haired girl, who had introduced herself as Angela the other day.

As the school day passed by, Tommy noted with amusement how the three rangers struggled to stay awake, and in most cases often decided to grab a nap at every chance that they could. But what did worry him was when Kimberly decided to take a nap after she ate her lunch she woke up five minutes later with wide terrified eyes. But before he could reach over and try to comfort her, she seemed to quickly get over whatever had troubled her.

So as the day progressed Tommy alternated between worrying over Kimberly's lack of rest and plotting his next attack on the Power Rangers, the only issue that he had, was finding an opportunity to get an hour or two away from Kim and Zack seeing as how the rangers were most likely heading back to the Command Center to continue their repairs. The opportunity came when Jason approached.

"Hey man, sorry about this, but we need to head to the hospital to visit my uncle. He's in critical care. But if all goes well, we should be able to hang out tomorrow. Hey, how 'bout tomorrow we go and work out." The red clad teen proposed.

"Yeah man, no problem. Besides I need to go home and prepare a room for a visitor coming by tomorrow. So working out? Must be trying to impress a certain yellow clad friend huh?" Tommy bantered forth, causing Jason to blush.

"Maybe, but I know that Kim will be all over the chance to see you work out." Jason called out as he backed away from his new friend and towards the other rangers.

"Hey if you guys get done with your visit early, then you can find me at the Youth Center around five today." Tommy called out to Jason and the others as they prepared to make their way to Billy's house.

As the rangers made their way back to the Command Center using Billy's RADBUG, a white flying Volkswagon Beatle, Tommy made a tour of the city looking for the spot for his next battle. After an hour of searching he found it, and made a quick trip to the Lunar Palace.

"Goldar!" Tommy called out, summoning the golden titan. "There's been a slight change in plans. I will not be going with you to find Scorpina, I'm sure you won't mind. But if you need extra help, you can always bring Squat and Baboo with you."

Goldar glowered in annoyance at the thought of being around those two bumbling morons for any longer than necessary. "Why? What do you have planned?" Goldar carefully questioned, fully knowing that not only did this young man have the favor of both the king and queen, but also that he probably had far more power than himself.

"I will introduce myself to the city, sowing terror among the citizens, while at the same time drawing the Power Rangers from their repairs to face me. And this time I'm not going in unarmed." Tommy said as he summoned the Sword of Darkness in a flash of black lightning. In a burst of green sparks, originating from his coin hanging around his neck and a flash of green light Tommy was morphed and in another burst of emerald lightning he returned to Earth.

Arriving back on Earth in a burst of wild lightning in the middle of Angel Grove's busiest square Tommy quickly caught everyone's attention. In silence he raised his blade and channeled some energy into it causing the blade to glow a dark green, before he swiped the blade through the air releasing an arc of dark green energy tearing down one of the city's main streets ripping up the road, and sending the previously shocked citizens scrambling away in terror.

Every citizen watched in horror as the newly revealed Green Ranger unleashed his powers upon the city as he called out the other rangers. "Power Rangers! I know you're watching, and unless you want me to unleash a monster on your city, you had best show up in five minutes." The Green Ranger said as he unleashed another arc of green energy down another major avenue.

-Command Center-

The rangers had been at the Command Center for only an hour when the alarm went off jerking everyone from their repairs. As everyone clambered towards the Viewing Globe Billy rushed toward the set of controls that operated the security systems. Quickly silencing the alarms Billy brought up an image of what was going on. The globe revealed the Green Ranger in time to hear his demand as well as watch him release an arc of energy down a crowded street. The rangers gasped in horror as their newest enemy's audacity.

"Billy, how fast can we get there?" Jason asked as he glared at the Green Ranger.

"Teleportation is still down, and walking is out of the question, and my car is too recognizable. Probably the best bet is to catch a ride on Kim's zord again." The blue genius replied.

Everyone turned to look at Kim expectantly. "Don't worry; she's already on her way."

"Alright guys, its morphin time! Tyrannosaurus!"

"Saber Tooth Tiger!"

"Mastodon!"

"Triceratops!"

"Pterodactyl!"

With everyone morphed and ready they quickly ran towards the Pterodactyl zord and within minutes had reached the Green Rangers location.

"Clever, for a minute there I almost thought you were going to be late." The Green Ranger mocked as he watched Ellisande fly off towards the ocean again.

"Why are you doing this? What's there to gain from all of this?" Zack asked, voicing the thought that all of Angel Grove had. But the Green Ranger remained silent, as if he had never heard the question at all. (3)

"If you're done standing around I think it's time to start." Tommy said as he raised his blade and charged the Power Rangers. In response all the rangers drew their power weapons. Jason lead the charge with his power sword held high while Zack and Trini followed at his flanks and Billy behind them, while Kimberly leapt back on top of a car to attack from range.

As the two forces closed Tommy had to deflect arrows as he closed with the Power Rangers, but he figured that if he was close enough the Pink Ranger wouldn't shoot because he would be too close to the others to safely hit from range.

But nearly all thought was quickly banished when the blades of both the Green and Red Ranger's collided sending sparks of green lightning all around. But before Jason could even begin to test the new ranger's guard, his opponent quickly fell into a reverse roll dodging Zack's ax. The Green Ranger quickly regained his feet and thrust his blade behind his back catching Trini, who had been preparing for a sneak attack, in the chest.

Jason briefly enraged at the casual manner the Green Ranger was dealing with his girl quickly flew at him with Billy backing him up. An arrow soared at the Green Ranger causing him to bring up his blade to deflect it, allowing a brief opportunity for Billy to swipe at his feet with his power lance. Acting quickly Tommy threw his blade into the ground blocking the lance, while stepping forward into Jason's guard and sending him crashing to the ground with a quick punch and kick combo. Summoning his blade back in a flash of black lightning the Green Ranger turned his attention to the other rangers only to find himself met by the power lance. Billy, after having used his weapon for over a year and after seeing how Tommy fought with a quarterstaff the other day he was fairly confident that he could take his opponent considering his shorter range.

But he was quickly proven wrong for while he had the range advantage, the Green Ranger moved as swift as a viper. He thrust only for his lance to be sidestepped; he twirled and slashed only to have his weapon to be effortlessly blocked. But worst of all was the fact that Billy could see his opponents' eyes glow green through the visor of his helmet, and the terror and panic built when after he blocked a slash he leaped up and over the lance and into Billy's guard and quickly delivered three slashes followed up by a burst of white fire, sending the Blue Ranger to the ground clutching his chest in pain.

While Billy and the Green Ranger were fighting Jason and Trini had regained their feet and had regrouped with Zack. "Alright guys, this time we work together." Jason said to his friends receiving nods of agreement. As a group they charged the Green Ranger who was busy dodging Kim's arrows which had suddenly picked up in frequency, speed, and strength. When they arrived Zack took the initiative by slashing with wide powerful strokes in an attempt to keep the Green Ranger out of his guard. After three such strokes, Zack went for and overhead blow only for the Green Ranger to sidestep and raise his free hand to Zack's chest. Looking into the visor Zack too noted the fiercely glowing green eyes, and at that moment he knew true fear as the ranger's gloved hand crackled with emerald sparks of lightning.

But before anything could come of this both Trini and Jason leapt to his defense attacking the Green Ranger from both sides, driving him back from the stunned Black Ranger. Trini leaped forward rushing the Green Ranger with her daggers flashing like lightning at him. Her furious rush drove the Green Ranger back into Jason's range where he quickly used his blade's longer reach to keep the new ranger at a distance. With three blades coming at him from two highly angered and skilled opponents Tommy knew that it was only a matter of time before one of them let their anger cloud their minds, and overextended themselves. Unfortunately whenever he saw the opening for an attack on one of the rangers the other would rush him and draw off his attack. Quickly getting fed up with the annoying pattern Tommy snaked an arm out and grabbed one of Trini's wrists, and with a quick twist he caused her to drop her dagger and with a surge of lightning he sent her to the ground clutching her entire right arm as it throbbed in agony.

Jason infuriated by the turn of events charged the Green Ranger and slashed high, only to be met with the smaller, yet quicker blade of the new ranger. In retaliation Tommy attempted to slide along the blade and into Jason's guard, only for the Red Ranger to pivot around to send a kick flying at the Green Ranger which was quickly ducked. Completing his spin Jason whipped his blade around and with the extra speed generated by the spin Tommy was forced to block the blade. Jason with the advantage of position tried to use his leverage and weight to force Tommy's guard down. But the Green Ranger held steady keeping the power sword at bay as he glared at the Red Ranger with his green eyes shining clearly through the tinted visor.

"Not bad Jason." The Green Ranger whispered, shocking Jason briefly before his determination hardened and pushed with more force on the Green Ranger's guard. But in a flash the battle had changed once again, as Jason's right knee erupted in pain from a quick blow from Tommy's leg. With the force lightened Tommy surged from his crouch and once on his feet he tossed Jason's blade behind him and with a series of slashes and a kick to the chest Jason was sent to the earth, clutching his body in pain.

"But not good enough. It seems that you need more incentive to fight better." The Green Ranger said as he teleported from Jason's location and over to the slowly recovering Trini. In a flash he dismissed his blade and grabbed her head with his right arm and jerked it towards Jason while he let loose some of his lightning. Jason stared in horror as he watched the girl he loved spasm and scream in pain; he quickly regained his feet and grabbed his blade. "I wonder how long she can stay conscious, or even alive for that matter." The Green Ranger said coolly, further enraging Jason, so much so that his power sword began to glow red once he saw Trini's head droop, but her body still twitching.

Just as Jason was about to charge the Green Ranger, an arrow that literally bled pink energy shot past. Jason noticed that as the arrow neared, it wasn't going to hit, but rather pass just to the side. Then in an unexpected motion the Green Ranger released Trini and snatched the arrow out of the air. Pink energy flowed into the Tommy for a few seconds before the Sword of Darkness suddenly reappeared in a flash of black lightning which immediately enveloped him in a black glow, blocking any more pink energy from flowing into him. With the sword's reappearance Tommy dropped the arrow to the ground before stepping back and after giving the defeated rangers a final look he teleported away in a flash of emerald lightning.

A few seconds of silence reigned at the departure of the Green Ranger before the citizens shouted in relief. Jason quickly ran to Trini and picked her up into his arms and made his way out of the city, calling his zord as he walked for a quick transportation back to the Command Center. The others quickly followed his lead and ten minutes later everyone was back at the Command Center. Billy went straight to repairing Alpha, figuring that if he was repaired then the robot could help with the repairs while he and the others were at school. Jason had set Trini down on a table and after he unmorphed her, he sat in a chair at her side holding her hand while Kimberly gave her a quick medical checkup. Zack, on the other hand stood leaning against the wall, staring blankly into space as he relived the fear of what had nearly happened to him.

After half an hour of worry Trini finally woke up. The yellow clad girl shot up off the table looking around wildly for the Green Ranger, before she noticed that he was nowhere in sight. Trini shuddered in both pain and fear before Jason stood up and wrapped her in a hug. "It's okay Tirini. He's gone." Jason soothed the quivering girl.

Everyone looked on in sadness at the two rangers before they heard a quiet whir. "Ah, all parts are fully functional. Thank you Billy." Alpha said starling everyone from their shock.

"Alpha. You're back!" Kimberly said as she and the others rushed to give the small robot a hug.

"Yes, Billy was able to fix my auto-repair functions earlier, so I am back to one hundred percent. Now can you tell me what's been going on?" The little robot questioned.

Jason gave a nod, and with one arm still wrapped around Trini's shoulder he told Alpha all that had happened recently. "And after he fought me he grabbed Trini and nearly shocked her to death. I think the only thing that saved her was Kimberly's arrow. I don't know why but even though the arrow would have missed him the Green Ranger reached out and grabbed it."

"Very clever Kimberly." Alpha complimented.

"Why? I mean, yeah distracting the guy was good, but I'm sure that hitting him would have been more useful." Zack said, voicing a thought that was lingering in the other ranger's heads.

"Because he's is not evil." Kimberly argued. "During the fight both Ellisande and I felt something was off about him today. I think something happened to him. First of all if you noticed he used some kind of white fire, and don't forget the black lightning that accompanied the sword. We're pretty sure that new sword of his is corrupting him."

"Kim in case you forgot, that he fought us yesterday and tore us apart. I admit that he was more intense today, but I think that whoever the dude is that he's a bad egg." Zack argued.

"I didn't forget. But in case you forgot, we all blacked out during that fight, yet we're still alive. So he's not evil. Ellisande assured me that Caldazar would never pick an evil partner. I think that he's under a spell."

"Why do you even care so much?" Zack asked. "You didn't see the look in his eyes. He wanted to kill me. If it hadn't been for Jason and Trini, I'd have been fried."

"I care because I know that is not who he really is." Kimberly said as she pointed to the viewing Globe, which was showing a clip of the battle they just fought. "He wouldn't hurt us. And besides, I know that I was getting through to him."

"How do you arrive at that conclusion?" Billy asked.

"When he was absorbing the energy from my arrow, I heard a roar of gratitude in my head. Ellisande says that it was Caldazar. That means that he is trying to fight whatever kind of spell is on him!" Kimberly shouted, trying to get it across that the Green Ranger wasn't an evil person.

Billy sighed before he spoke what everyone else was thinking. "Kim, while you may be right, his actions speak contrary to any theory or explanation that you have. And until I see and examine some positive evidence on the contrary, I have to side with Zack, that the Green Ranger is evil."

"Is this the sword you are talking about?" Alpha asked forestalling any more arguments as he pulled up an image of the Sword of Darkness onto the Viewing Globe. Everyone gave a solemn nod. "Ay yi yi. This is bad. That is the Sword of Darkness, one of the most evil artifacts in the galaxy. That cursed blade not only has enough dark magic to affect Zordon himself, but it will only work for an extremely powerful person. Rangers I suggest you all take a break for today. You have seen enough for one day." Alpha said as he ushered the rangers out of the Command Center.

"So where to guys?" Zack asked.

"I'm going to walk Trini home." Jason said earning a blush from the dark haired girl. "But if you guys want you can head to the Youth Center and hang out with Tommy. He said he'll be at there around five." He said to Billy, Zack and Kimberly.

"Yeah, maybe he can help us improve our skills, so next time we face ol' green eyes we won't get crushed." Zack said as he started to get over the fear he felt earlier now that he saw a way to make sure it wouldn't happen again. Billy and Kim nodded, though the latter somewhat reluctantly.

"Alright, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Jason said as he left with Trini.

**That's the end of the fourth chapter. I hope that you liked the fight scene.**

**The black lightning comes from the Sword of Darkness, which is working hard to keep Caldazar from restoring Tommy's original memories. The white fire is a part of Tommy's Ninjetti battle magic, any fire he produces is white, just like any lightning **_**he **_**produces is green.**

**For those who think that Tommy was somewhat harsh, you need to remember that he believes that Zordon trapped him and his family inside the interstellar prison for nearly his entire life. So he was 'raised' to be evil and hate his enemies, also the Sword of Darkness is affecting him.**

**1) Tommy had returned to the Youth Center and finished waiting for Kim, before going home. He did not break his promise to Kim.**

**2) I'm not having Tommy fight putties to earn the Sword of Darkness, since when Goldar collected him Tommy had already defeated about thirty putties. So he's already shown his skill at combat without his powers, so I feel it unnecessary for him to fight anymore putties to earn the sword. Also Rita wants Tommy to have the sword as soon as possible.**

**3) Since Tommy believes that both the Black and Pink rangers are robots that are using the power coins, because Zordon couldn't or wouldn't allow the coins to find anyone to use them. Rita placed a spell on Tommy so that he can hear no voices from the Black and Pink rangers.**

**Be sure to leave a review and tell me what you think.**


	5. Revelations

Ch 5

**Note: I don't own Power Rangers, but I do own this story.**

**This chapter deals with Jason's capture, Trini's rage at this, and two major fight scenes. Man this is going to be a long one. **

**I would like to thank brankel1, xBeLLeGrEyx, red lighting, oldtvlover, laloveskt, gardien 1204, and Young at Heart21 for their reviews. **

**I would also like to thank all those who have added this story to their alert and favorite lists. **

**And to answer gardien 1204's question. I wrote Tommy knowing the identity of three rangers instead of one, so that he could torment more of the rangers. But if I revealed more than the three I did, then Tommy would be too suspicious of Kimberly, which would derail part of the plot. **

**Remember the names of the zords:** **Green Dragon: Caldazar, Pink Pterodactyl: Ellisande, Yellow Saber Tooth Tiger: Lin, Red Tyrannosaurus: Ithai, Blue Triceratops: Rotem, Black Mastodon: Fannar. **

-School the Next Day-

Despite the hectic week so far, and all the bruises and near deaths that he had faced in the last two days Jason was having a good day. For one thing he and the others got a call from Alpha on their communicators explaining that he had fixed the teleportation system. So now that the rangers had their usual transportation system running they would be able to respond to the Green Ranger more effectively without scrambling all over themselves to meet him before he caused anymore damage.

But that wasn't what had him in such a good mood. No, that was because he got to walk Trini home last night, and he was planning on walking her back home today so that she could rest and recover from the Green Ranger's attack. Jason's face darkened in anger as he remembered her body twitching from the lightning. Quickly clearing the dark thought away Jason saw Tommy standing in the hall looking at a quickly fleeing Bulk and Skull.

"Hey Tommy!" Jason called out, grabbing the teen's attention.

-A Few Minutes Earlier-

Tommy was having a strange day. First of all once he returned from his battle with the Power Rangers his mom demanded to know what the purpose of his stunt was. He had told her that he wanted to show the city how powerless the rangers were against him, as well as putting terror into their hearts. Although she was upset that he had changed the plan about finding Scorpina, she absolutely loved the torture he did to Trini and in indirectly to Jason as well.

But unfortunately everything went downhill from there. An exhausted Goldar and Scorpina arrived early this morning waking everyone up from their sleep. Adding on to the lack of sleep, his dreams had been troubled. Dreams about black chains tying him down, while voices shouted out from the darkness trying to encourage him to get free, all the while a slithery voice spoke words of comfort and safety in his ears. All of this added up to an easily irritated Tommy.

And when Bulk and Skull came along he knew that he had found an outlet for his frustrations. "Hey Bulk, look who it is, if it isn't Mr. Showoff himself. I think it's time someone explained to you how things work around here." Skull said puffing out his chest as he stood next to his overweight friend. "One, no one messes with us. We're the top dogs around here." Tommy stifled a chuckle at this. "Two, you may think you're all that, but let me tell you this Kimberly is mine."

At this all of Tommy's humor at the two moronic bullies vanished. "You listen here and you listen good. Kimberly is not yours, and if I ever here you lay any kind of claim on her again I will drag you out into the harbor and throw you overboard, and watch as you and your friend try to swim for shore." Tommy whispered in a cold and cool tone, his voice echoing his willingness to follow through with his threat.

The two bullies backed away from the new kid in slight fear; but bolted in absolute terror as they saw his eyes shift from the normal dark brown to glowing emerald eyes that promised pain. Tommy chuckled in amusement as he watched the two bullies run in terror tripping over themselves in an attempt to get out of Tommy's line of sight. Quickly Tommy let the illusion fall back into place over his green eyes, and once again his true eyes were hidden. (1)

"Hey Tommy!" Jason called out bringing Tommy's attention to the Red Ranger.

"What's up Jason?"

"I just wanted to tell you that I can't work out with you today. I'm walking Trini home." Jason said with a slight blush.

Tommy gave a wicked grin. "I see, making sure that she gets home safe with that new ranger running around." Tommy teased.

"Kinda. Well I got to go; I need to meet up with Trini." Jason said as he walked off with a smile crossing his face. Tommy seeing the opportunity raised his hand and shot out a teleportation spell at Jason sending the Red Ranger to his dimension. With Jason out of the way Tommy walked out of the school with a spring in his step as he looked forward to messing with Trini's mind latter today.

-With Kimberly-

Kimberly was sitting on the steps of the school with Trini waiting for Jason. Normally she loved hanging out with her best friend, but today she was all over the place. "Trini calm down. I mean what do you have to be nervous about? He already walked you home last night." Kim reasoned.

Trini got up from her spot on the stairs for the eighth time and paced for a bit. "Yeah, but last night I was too out of it for the idea that he was walking me home to really sink in."

Kim nodded in sympathy. "By the way how are you feeling?"

"Better. But my muscles still spasm every now and then. I was pretty lucky wasn't I?" Trini asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, but I don't think he would have killed you though." Kim replied.

"Maybe, man where is Jason?" Trini complained. "School let out twenty minutes ago; he should've been here by now."

"Why don't you try to get a hold of him with your communicator?" Kim suggested.

Trini nodded. "Jason. It's Trini. Where are you?" After releasing the button on her communicator all she heard was static. Getting worried now she called him again, but the result was the same. "Kim, I think something is going on. Let's get to the Command Center and have Alpha run a scan for Jason." She suggested worry clearly painted on her face.

Kimberly got up and after grabbing her bag the two friends made their way to a secluded corner of the school and in a flash of pink and yellow light the two teenagers teleported away to the Command Center. When they arrived they immediately noticed how much better the Command Center looked. Most of the computer counsels had been repaired, and nearly all the rewiring was done. While the early warning system was still down, the improvements made to the Command Center's security made it certain that if the Green Ranger made a return visit, he wouldn't be doing anywhere near the amount of damage he had done before. Alpha and Billy's efforts at repairing the base were really showing.

When the two girls arrived in the Command Center, Billy, Zack, and Alpha knew something was up. For Jason was supposed to escort Trini home safely, before coming back to the Command Center to help plan for their next battle against the Green Ranger. While Kim was originally planning on finding Tommy to get some training in for the next battle.

"What's the matter girls?" Zack asked, picking up on the girls' worry.

"Alpha, I need you to run a scan for Jason. He never showed to walk me home, and when I tried bringing him up on the communicators he never answered. I think something happened to him." Trini said.

Alpha gave a worried nod before moving towards the search grid, where he manually ran a routine searching for the Red Ranger. After a few minutes of tense silence the scan was complete. "I'm sorry Trini, but the scan couldn't find Jason anywhere on the planet." Alpha's short message brought Trini out of the despair that she had been feeling and awoken a deep burning anger in her.

"Alpha, I want you to run a search for any signs of teleportation in the last hour, focusing primarily on how the Green Ranger teleports." The Yellow Ranger said in a clipped tone. Alpha quickly reset the scan and seconds later a beep resounded throughout the base.

Billy moved to read the results and shook his head in shock. "Your theory was right Trini. Apparently about twenty minutes ago a teleportation, similar to the Green Ranger's was preformed somewhere in the school. I'm afraid that the only logical conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence; is that Jason has been captured and is now in the clutches of Rita and her minions." Billy said lowly, knowing full well that Trini would not take the news well.

He was right. The yellow clad girl paced in anger, muttering to herself all the things that she would do once she got her hands on the Green Ranger. After a few minutes of pacing and muttering Trini made her way to a computer counsel and began to program a routine to locate the Green Ranger, despite the fact that she didn't have enough information about him to complete even half the program.

Billy was working with Alpha to design a program that would search though the dimensions and find Zordon. Zack had brought out his power ax and had gone outside to practice with his weapon to better prepare for the next fight with the Green Ranger. While Kim had gone on top of the roof of the Command Center and began to practice some of the moves Tommy had taught her the night before when, she and Zack had met up with him at the Youth Center.

As Kim was working through her moves, she kept up a steady stream of chatter with Ellisande. "_So you and Caldazar are mates right?_" Kim asked her partner.

"_Correct young one. We have been mates for well over twelve thousand years._" Ellisande answered.

"_So in all that time did you two ever have any children?_"

Ellisande paused before she answered. "_Yes. We have had many children, we have watched them grow up and give us grandchildren. But unfortunately our descendents have died out; either hunted down by ignorant humans, or simply lost the passage of time. But our race still has hope. Caldazar and I still have two eggs left. He guards one, and I guard the other. I also have a Pterodactyl egg from an old friend of mine. So our race still has a chance to continue on._"

"_I'm sorry about what happened to your children. But why haven't the eggs hatched yet? And can you guys make more eggs?_"

Ellisande chuckled in her mind. "_You have a lot of questions young one. I think you'll be a great mother one day. Caldazar thinks that they won't hatch until they meet a certain person. Our two eggs have been dormant for well over ten thousand years, and my friend's egg has been dormant just as long. But as for any more eggs. It would take a powerful magician to release us from these forms and restore us back to our former selves. In fact the spell for that would have to be created from scratch, seeing as Zordon only focused on turning us into zords rather than devising a way to reverse it. Now enough about me; tell me what you think about Tommy and the Green Ranger._"

Kimberly blushed and stumbled before she regained her footing and resumed her practice. "_I hope you're not suggesting that Tommy is the Green Ranger. There is no way that he could be that cruel and aggressive._"

"_Wasn't it you who was defending him the other night. And yes I am suggesting that Tommy is the Green Ranger. But you have to remember that your mate is under a spell of some sort. There is no way that Caldazar would choose a partner that was evil. And besides, Caldazar, while he was kind to me and his friends, he fought without reservations against his enemies._"

Kim sighed and blushed at the Ellisande's words about the Green Ranger being her mate. "_I guess. And I have to admit, that I kind of like the idea of Tommy being mine._" Kim blushed heavily at her own words here. "_But do you really think that the Green Ranger, who _might_ be Tommy, is under a spell, and that we can release him from it._"

Ellisande sighed once again. The girl hadn't put it together yet, but if she stepped back and thought about it, then she would realize the obvious, that Tommy Oliver was Caldazar's chosen. She herself had only realized it earlier today when Tommy gave Kim a squeeze on the hand for walking with him to his class. It was then that she detected a brief pulse of Caldazar's power. "_Yes we can break it. We just need to remove that blasted sword from him, and he should be fine. With the sword gone, Caldazr will have no problem breaking whatever spell that was on him._" Ellisand reassured her partner.

Kim was about to respond when her Communicator went off. "Kimberly, the Green Ranger has appeared again. Hurry back inside." Rushing back inside Kimberly met up with the others as they watched the Green Ranger appear on the Viewing Globe somewhere near the coast, but before she could get a good look at the terrain, she and the other rangers were dragged towards the teleportation rods by Trini.

"Alpha. While we are fighting the Green Ranger keep searching for Zordon, hopefully I'll be able to pound Jason's location out of the green pest." Trini said before she morphed and teleported towards the Green Ranger's location. Kimberly, Zack, and Billy quickly followed after their friend.

-Battlefield-

Tommy stood on a cliff overlooking the ocean gazing into the depths while he waited for the rangers to arrive. In a manner of minutes he felt the presence of the Yellow Ranger arriving followed shortly by the Blue, Black, and Pink Rangers. He smirked in his helmet as he realized that Trini was already annoyed and that his mental games with the Red and Yellow Rangers were working just as he planned.

Climbing on top of an overhang, Tommy summoned the Sword of Darkness in a flash of black lightning, before he called out to the rangers. "I'm pleased that you got here so fast. But it seems that in your hurry someone was left behind."

Trini visibly shook in anger as she drew her Blade Blaster, prompting her friends to do the same. "I know you took him. Now tell me Green Ranger! Where's Jason!" The Yellow Ranger shouted, causing her fellow rangers to place a hand on her, lest she try to take him on by herself.

"Now why would I tell you that, Trini? After all he is a guest of Goldar." Tommy mocked, watching in amusement as the Yellow Ranger quivered in anger. "But … if you and your friend impress me with your skill, I'll give you a fair chance at finding your precious love." Tommy said as he gestured to Billy.

Trini growled but nodded signaling the start of the battle. Tommy leapt from his higher position, starting off the battle with a jump slash at the Pink Ranger, who had managed to raise her Blade Blaster to block his sword. But the weight and force of the attack buckled her knees, leading to a swift kick to her chest that sent her rolling away. Acting quickly Tommy angled his head away from a thrust from Trini and quickly gave her a slash along her right arm, before sending the furious girl away with an elbow to the face.

Spinning around Tommy casually sidestepped the Black Ranger's blade before slashing the pest across the chest. Stepping back from the fallen Black Ranger, Tommy turned his attention towards Billy. Letting the illusion on his eyes fall he focused some of his magic to his eyes making them glow bright enough to be seen through the visor of his helmet. Billy quickly stepped back in panic as he saw two glowing green circles shine through the visor. Tommy stepped forward and chuckled darkly as he saw the blue intellectual visibly shake himself from his blind panic before he rushed forward to fight. Ducking the rushed thrust Tommy slashed the Blue Ranger from hip to shoulder before tossing him away.

Tommy paused briefly to choose his victim, before he heard a low growl behind him. Turning around swiftly he brought his blade up in time to catch the Blade Blasters of both Yellow and Pink Rangers. He noted with interest that Trini's weapon was glowing yellow. In one swift move Tommy broke the blade lock by slashing upwards. With both rangers momentarily vulnerable he moved forward and sent a trio of slashes Trini's way sending her to the ground in pain, before whipping his leg around and smashing the recovering Pink Ranger into the rocks.

As he stepped towards the Trini to further irritate her, he heard footsteps signaling Billy's arrival. Again Tommy spun around, and found to his surprise that the Black Ranger was accompanying the genius. But nonetheless he reacted seamlessly by again sending a few slashes Billy's way before contemptuously sending the Blue Ranger to the ground. Pivoting nimbly Tommy caught the Black Ranger's jump slash on his sword, before he flipped the unfortunate ranger onto his back. To his credit the Black Ranger quickly regained his feet, but only to be sent tumbling to the ground with a heavy slash to his torso.

The Black Ranger continued to roll until the other rangers gathered around him and brought the tumbling ranger to his feet. As the rangers all got their bearings back Tommy raised his sword and calling upon its power he caused the blade to glow black, whereupon he thrust the blade into the ground sending a wave of evil power straight at the recovering rangers, that sent the rangers once again to the ground. Tommy chuckled darkly before he taunted Trini again. "If this is all the power that you have, then I'm afraid Jason will forever be out of your reach."

Trini's entire body began to glow yellow, as her anger rose. Raising her hand she gave a call that completely surprised Tommy. "Saber Tooth Tiger!" In a manner of seconds Lin arrived and her mistress quickly leapt into the cockpit. The zord lunged forward and with a swipe of its massive paw, it sent Tommy flying from the cliffs and into a quarry. Tommy climbed to his feet, glad that he had practiced his defensive shield spells the other night, otherwise the battle may have ended right there. But he removed himself from his thoughts when he saw that the other rangers had summoned their zords along with Ithai the Tyrannosaurus zord, apparently answering to Trini's call as well.

Tommy stared as all the zords brought themselves together and formed the Megazord. Shaking himself from his distracted state, Tommy again charged the Sword of Darkness in preparation to defeat the giant zord in one blow. When the Megazord had finished assembling Tommy raised his sword and released all the power he had called upon from the sword in one large black beam. The Megazord seemed to flinch, when all of a sudden in a flash of black light the Mastodon's head appeared in the form of a shield. The giant zord caught the shield and used it to reflect the black beam back at the Green Ranger. In desperation Tommy threw up another shield, this one bright green in the shape of the diamond on his Dragon Shield. The black beam from the Sword of Darkness clashed with the emerald shield, trying to break through, and break Caldazar's power. Seconds ticked by as the power of the Sword of Darkness clashed with Caldazar and Tommy's power. Acting quickly Tommy pumped more of his energy and power into the shield causing it to begin to burn away the black power assaulting it. In a few seconds the beam from the Sword of Darkness was erased.

Lowering the shield Tommy stared at the Megazord in silence. "Your tenacity and resourcefulness are impressive Yellow Ranger. I'll honor my words." With a wave of his hand Tommy lowered the wards guarding his dimension, allowing the rangers an opportunity to find Jason. With one last glare at the Megazord Tommy vanished in a flash of emerald lightning.

Inside the Megazord Billy and Zack were celebrating their victory over the Green Ranger; while both Trini and Kimberly were occupied with their thoughts. With the battle over Trini's worry for Jason had returned full force. And Kimberly was concerned with the Green Ranger's safety, after seeing the Sword of Darkness's power. But the girls' dark thoughts were broken when they heard Zack say, "Ha! We finally did it. We beat the Green Ranger."

Trini spun in her chair, annoyed and highly strung from the fight and snapped at the two boys. "In case you two didn't notice, we had to use the Megazord to beat him, and unless I'm mistaken he should have a zord too. This wasn't a victory, it was a draw." (2)

Billy, now thoroughly abashed at his actions turned to Trini. "Your theory makes sense. But the real question is whether we can trust the Green Ranger to uphold his word." Billy stated.

Trini nodded before she leaped from the Megazord and onto the cliffs surrounding the quarry with the others following her lead they dismissed their zords, before teleporting back to the Command Center.

Once they had arrived Trini and Billy moved over to the scanners where they paused the search for Zordon, while they rescanned Earth and the surrounding sectors of space for Jason. Zack had cornered Alpha for an explanation on the appearance of the Mastodon Shield, to which the small robot replied, "It appeared because you drew deeper on the Fannar's power, meaning the barrier between you and the Mastodon is weakening." In the meantime, Kimberly had begun to pace around the main chamber while telepathically talking to Ellisande about the Sword of Darkness. But the thought that was at the front of everyone's mind was if they could find Jason before Goldar decided to kill him.

-Lunar Palace-

After leaving the rangers Tommy teleported back to the Lunar Palace to check in with Rita on the next stage of her grand plan. As Tommy walked towards the observation chamber he removed the illusion on his eyes and demorphed in a flash of green light. When he reached the chamber he noticed that his mother was gazing at the Earth with her magic telescope, and gathered around the dark witch stood, Finster, Baboo, Squat, and Scorpina. Taking the opportunity he surveyed his mother's newest minion. Scorpina looked like a lady of eastern descent decked out in golden bronze scorpion themed armor. At her hip sat an angled sword that looked like a boomerang. "_So this is Goldar's friend._" Tommy thought.

Stepping into the chamber Tommy made his presence known. Dropping into a bow he spoke, "I have returned mother. I am ready to begin the next stage of your plan."

Rita moved from her telescope and raised her son from his bow. "Actually Tommy, for the next stage of my plan I need you to send Goldar to me. He should be finished with Jason by now. Wait in your room and practice with your powers and spells until I call for you." Tommy gave a nod his green eyes glowing bright. Turning around he strode from the room before disappearing in a flash of emerald lightning.

Rita turned around to find Scorpina staring after Tommy with a look of confusion on her face. "What's that look on your face for Scorpina?" The witch questioned, with a note of challenge in her voice.

Scorpina turned to face her old friend and gave her a smile. "Nothing, it's just that I remember your son to be around ten thousand years old, as well as looking … distinctly unique."

Rita gave her friend a cool glance before she commenced to explain all that had happened since they had last seen each other.

-Tommy's Dimension-

Arriving in his own dimension Tommy hung back in the shadows only to see that Goldar had in fact failed to finish off the Red Ranger. Quickly he again morphed to keep his identity a secret from the rangers. Stepping from the shadows he stopped Goldar just as the gold titan was about to finish Jason off. "Goldar, the Queen commands you to prepare for the next stage of the plan. I assume you know what that is."

Growling Goldar turned to face the queen's son. "I will be along in a minute, after I have finished destroying this pest." Again he raised his sword to end Jason, only to feel Tommy's hand upon his shoulder. Turning around again Goldar came face to face with Tommy's helmet and saw that his eyes were again glowing bright green through his visor. Taking a step back in slight fear Goldar collected himself.

"When the Queen commands something, her orders are to be followed now, not later. And besides, you have had over two hours to finish off Jason, and now your dawdling will cost you your prize." Tommy growled out. Goldar snarled but nodded nonetheless and slammed his sword into the ground as he teleported away in a flash of golden flames

Jason slowly stood to his feet in preparation for an even harder fight. Tommy turned his attention to Jason and glared at him with his bright green eyes causing the battle hardened ranger to stiffen in fright, before he remembered what this man did to Trini.

Tommy watched as the Red Ranger stiffened his resolve. "Ah yes, it seems that you are finally finding your fighting spirit. It's too bad about your little girlfriend won't be able to see it." He lied, watching as Jason visibly shook with rage. "Although I must admit that she put up a much better fight than Billy."

"SHUT UP!" Jason shouted. "How could you? How could you do that to Trini?"

Tommy chuckled darkly. "It was easy. Although I have to admit that her attempt to get your location out of me was most impressive. I never knew that your calm little tiger held such a vicious side. But not even her rage saved her from death."

Finally having enough Jason sprang from his place on the fog covered room. With a roar of rage Jason leaped at the Green Ranger with a flying kick, only for Tommy to dodge to the side of the attack and send a low powered blast of lightning Jason's way. Jason tumbled to the ground clutching his body as it spasmed from the electricity. Tommy circled the fallen boy."If that's how you honor Trini's passing, then she must be ashamed."

Jason slowly rose to his feet at glared at Tommy with all the hate he had. "I don't care what she says, there's no way that someone like you could ever be a good person Green Ranger." Jason called out, only to receive a dark laugh.

"Think whatever you want Jason, but I won't dawdle like Goldar." Tommy replied as he summoned the Sword of Darkness in a flash of black lightning. With a flourish of the sword Tommy leaped at Jason. Slashing diagonally at Jason, the Red Ranger backpedaled from the evil blade, only to have to drop to the ground to avoid the follow through. Rolling away from another slash Jason flipped to his feet only to receive a kick to the chest sending him crashing into one of the electrified gates.

Jason laid there on his back, exhausted and beaten, as the Green Ranger raised his sword that was glowing blacker than pitch. Jason raised his eyes and noticed once again that Tommy's eyes were glowing bright green through his visor. "You have a strong will Jason, enjoy your time in the afterlife with Trini." Tommy said as he thrust his sword at Jason's heart.

But just before the Sword of Darkness struck; Jason was teleported from the dark dimension in a flash of red light with his morpher in hand. The ground where Jason just lay erupted in an explosion of evil energy.

-Command Center-

Feeling the familiar effect of teleportation Jason looked around his surroundings and noticed that he was back on Earth in the Command Center. But before he could even begin to look around he was tackled by a blur of yellow. Looking down at his attacker he noticed that it was Trini, and she had wrapped her arms around him tightly with her head buried into his chest. Taken aback by the fact that she was even alive Jason wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to him to reassure himself that she was real.

After several minutes of silent tears the two rangers broke apart only to be met with knowing smiles by their teammates. Blushing heavily the two teens separated but remained close. Billy decided to end their embarrassment by bringing up some questions.

"Jason it's good to see that we got you out in time. But we need to know what happened while you were missing. Did you gain any intelligence on the identity of the Green Ranger?" Billy asked.

Every smile disappeared as Jason told his friends how he was abducted just as he finished talking to Tommy about not being able to work out with him, due to the fact that he was walking Trini home. And seconds later he was in the strange green decorated room that his friends rescued him from, with Goldar. He told them how Goldar had his morpher, and without his powers he couldn't outright fight Goldar without dying. So he fought and hid off and on for the last two hours from the gold titan. He was lucky that Goldar liked to toy with his prey.

And when the Green Ranger arrived everything went from bad to worse. Everyone nodded as they had seen everything that had happened when the Green Ranger arrived. "So what happened to you guys while I was captured?" Jason asked with a forced sense of casualness as he unconsciously grabbed Trini's hand and gave it a squeeze.

Trini took up the story on what had happened to them. Jason leaned against the counsel growing more frustrated as time passed, and his grip tightened on Trini's hand when he heard how the Green Ranger tore them apart without him there. Although when Trini described the beam that the Green Ranger attacked them with, there was some disagreement among his friends.

"Man it was freaky. Just when the Megazord was assembled the Green Ranger launches this black beam of energy from his sword. Dude you could feel the evil coming off that beam, but luckily I was able to summon the Mastodon Shield and reflect the beam back." Zack interrupted proud of his accomplishment.

Kimberly glared at her friend as she recalled her thoughts on what had happened when the beam was reflected back at the Green Ranger. "Yeah but when the beam was about to hit him, the Green Ranger threw up this green diamond shield to block the blast. But instead of dissipating it was like the beam was trying to eat through the shield to attack him. Ellisande and I think that the sword was trying to break Caldazar and T- whoever is the Green Ranger's power and will."

Jason sighed at the girl he thought of as a little sister again defended their enemy. "Kim, I don't think that the Green Ranger is being manipulated by any means. He did not hesitate at all. That boy, whoever he is was probably raised to hate."

"I don't believe that. For one thing he didn't kill us while we were unconscious after our first battle. And in a way he was being merciful to you, he didn't stand around taking sick pleasure in prolonging the fight, he was going to end it quickly, which is more than Goldar ever did." Kimberly replied.

"While you bring up good points Kimberly, let's not forget that he also threatened to unleash a monster on the city, while attacking the citizens. He nearly killed Trini in the first battle by snapping her neck, and in the next fight he was electrocuting her to death, if it wasn't for his strange reaction to your arrow then Trini could very well be dead. Zack was one second away from being hit by a lightning bolt. He kidnapped Jason, and knowingly sent him into Goldar's clutches. I will stand by my earlier conjecture, that unless irrefutable proof is shown to the contrary, I will operate under the assumption that the Green Ranger is as evil as Goldar and Rita." Billy interjected.

"Rangers you must calm down."Alpha said attempting to alleviate some of the anger that was building. "Let's focus on finding Zordon, he should be able to shed some light on the Green Ranger." Everyone gave a reluctant nod as they resumed the search for their mentor.

An hour into their search the alarms went off again drawing everyone's attention to the Viewing Globe. In seconds the globe showed an image of a golden armored female with a heavily curved sword terrorizing the industrial district. A loud sigh of relief echoed throughout the room as everyone gave a prayer of thanks that it wasn't the Green Ranger. "Alright guys let's do it." Jason said as he and everyone morphed and teleported away in flashes of light.

-Tommy's Dimension-

Growling to himself at the Red Ranger's escape Tommy put himself through his exercises, pushing his body to the limit. As he practiced his martial skills, he also ran over a mental list over all the spells he had learned so far. Realizing that he needed a way to combat the ranger's zords more effectively, since he had yet to fully access his powers, and as such he couldn't summon Caldazar, he paused in his practice and walked over to one of the shelves that held his spell books.

Looking through the shelves of books Tommy finally found a pertinent volume. Opening the old leather book he saw the intricate incantation that would allow him to make himself grow without his mother's or father's aid. After a quick glance at the theory behind the spell, Tommy felt a sudden flash of insight and realized that he somehow already knew a way to increase his size. (3) Taking time to practice the technique, as it wasn't technically a spell, he was surrounded by flashes and flickers of white flame and energy that allowed him to change his size in much the same way that Goldar grew.

While he waited for his mother's signal for the next stage of the plan, Tommy took a careful look at the Sword of Darkness. He recalled the unease he felt before he took the blade, and thinking back on how ever since he had taken up the Sword of Darkness, his powers had ceased growing. Caldazar himself had gone silent ever since he had touched the sword.

Feeling his frustration rise Tommy grabbed the sword and threw it into the center of the main chamber of his dimension. Glaring at the blade Tommy demorphed and grabbed his coin from his neck and stared at before he focused his magic and will on the coin only to have his efforts repulsed by a powerful dark force. Drawing deep from himself he reached out and broke through the barrier surrounding the coin and touched Caldazar's mind with his own.

"_Caldazr, why have my powers stopped growing?_" Tommy questioned.

The great dragon seemed surprised to hear his partner's voice. "_It is because of the Sword of Darkness. It is attempting to block and limit our power._" Caldazar replied with a distant voice. "_I am surprised that you have been able to break through the sword's power to contact me._"

Tommy paused before asking, "_Why would the Sword of Darkness try to keep us from reaching our full potential?_"

Caldazar released a chuckle. "_Because it was ordered to, the sword is trying to keep me from influencing you. I'm doing all that I can to break you free, but I can't do it with so much of my power blocked from you. You must forcefully draw my power if you are to ever be free._" The dragon said in a serious tone.

"_Free from what?_"

"_You will find out. But a word of warning, do not kill the Power Rangers. And do not harm Ellisande and her ranger._"

Tommy gave a nod, but before he could continue the conversation his concentration was broken by his mother's voice. "Tommy, it's time for you to come out and play with the Power Rangers again." Rita called out as she appeared in her son's room. Looking around she noticed that the Sword of Darkness was lying on the floor, while her son was focused inward with sparks of green lightning and white fire dancing over his body.

Opening his eyes Tommy took note of his mother's worried face. With a flourish of his hand Tommy summoned the Sword of Darkness and quickly morphed in a flash of green lightning and light. "I'm ready mother." Tommy said as he disappeared in a flash of green lightning.

-Earth-

"Alright guys, we can do this." Jason called out to his teammates trying to encourage them despite how bad things were looking. All five of the rangers had fought hard battles earlier today, and both Jason and Trini were feeling emotionally drained. And despite this they had to fight not only a group of putties, but also Goldar, and a new chick, that apparently was his girlfriend or something, considering how protective he was of her.

But everything just continued to get worse; for Rita had sent her wand down to Earth, to not only make Goldar grow, but also Scorpina. With no options left the rangers had called upon their zords and quickly formed the Megazord. But with two opponents the going was tough, especially since the two giants guarded each other better than expected and Goldar seemed to be stronger than ever. Despite the double team by the giant duo, the rangers were able to keep up with them. Barely.

All of that changed when Kimberly noticed a flash of green lightning. "Guys we have company."Kim said as she pointed towards the ground, where the Green Ranger stood.

"This is not going to end well." Jason muttered. "Zack summon the Mastodon Shield. If the Green Ranger joins this fight, we're going to need everything we've got." Zack nodded and in a flash of black light the Megazord was holding the Mastodon Shield.

Back on the ground Tommy gathered his power around himself as he preformed the growing technique. In flash of white fire and energy Tommy stood as tall as Goldar, Scorpina, and the Megazord. "Guys, did he just make himself grow?" Jason asked as the Green Ranger began to circle the Megazord with Goldar and Scorpina following his lead.

"It would appear so, seeing as there was no sign of Rita's wand anywhere in the local area." Billy replied. Seconds later a shrill alarm sounded through the Megazord. Glancing at his screen and outside Billy quickly arrived at the source of the alarm. "Guys we're losing power. Rita must be using her magic to block the sun, thereby draining our power cells."

With the sun blocked the Green Ranger started the fight anew. Leaping forward the Green Ranger brought his blade down only for the Mastodon Shield to rise to meet the challenge. Forcing his weight on the shield to keep it pinned Tommy brought up his left hand and gathered an orb of green energy before firing the orb at the Megazord's left leg.

"Guys we're losing power fast. We can't take too many more hits like that." Billy said as the Megazord's cockpit rocked with the explosion.

Jason growled in annoyance, before initiating the sequence for the Power Sword. In a flash of silver light the majestic blade fell from the sky and was caught by the Megazord. With a flourish of both blade and shield the Megazord moved forwards and unleashed a flurry of slashes at the Green Ranger.

Ducking and dodging the Power Sword Tommy wove through the slashes fairly easily, while sending attacks of his own at the Megazord, only for the Mastodon Shield to intercept every one. Growling in annoyance Tommy leapt back from the Megazord and sent a blast of green lightning at the zord's feet, causing the Megazord to fall to its knees. Tommy thrust the Sword of Darkness into the earth and focused inward. Reaching for Caldazar Tommy again ran into interference from the Sword of Darkness. Snarling in annoyance Tommy forced away the swords power and reached for the power of Caldazar. Grasping the power Tommy drew it into himself, taking time to anchor the power within. With the power anchored he stood tall and stretching out his right hand he called forth the power of the Dragon. In a bright blinding flash of green light and lightning he summoned forth a long intricate green dagger with golden designs, including gold piping, golden dragon claw emblem, as well as three gold pumps on the handle.

Jason was feeling the strain of the battle. Just when the Megazord regained its feet they were attacked by Goldar and Scorpina. Spinning around to face the new threat the Megazord brought its shield up to catch Goldar's broadsword, at the same time catching both of Scorpina's claws with the Power Sword. With both enemies blocked the team fed power into the arms of the Megazord and threw Goldar away with a shove of the shield. Pivoting Jason had the Megazord bash Scorpina in the face with the shield, causing her to stumble back and free up the sword, and with one swift slash from the Power Sword Scorpina was sent sprawling to the ground.

But it was at that time that the scanners picked up the Green Ranger powering up. The Megazord turned in time to see Tommy pick up the Sword of Darkness with his left hand and flourish the sword, before settling into a stance with his new dagger leading. "Kimberly, do you have any idea where he got _another_ weapon?" Trini asked with panic coloring her voice.

Taking a quick glance at the dagger Kim focused back on the battle before responding. "He must have summoned it. It's probably his main weapon, considering the Sword of Darkness was a gift, so the dagger must be from the core of his powers." The Pink Ranger elaborated, causing the other rangers to steel themselves for the Green Ranger.

With his new blade Tommy again leaped into the battle. Slashing with his sword he trapped the Power Sword. Keeping the Megazord's main weapon locked Tommy sidestepped the shield bash from the Mastodon Shield, before slashing the Megazord with the Dragon Dagger. With a series of lightning quick slashes Tommy attacked the Megazord's arms cutting deep into them. Within seconds the arms of the giant zord had received too much damage for them to operate normally, causing the Megazord to release both sword and shield. With the zord heavily damaged Tommy stepped back before charging his dagger with his power, causing the blade to glow green. With a single lunge Tommy rammed his blade into the shoulder of the Megazord, embedding the Dragon Dagger in the zord.

Stepping back Tommy, Goldar, and Scorpina watched as the Megazord's power failed entirely. Damaged and out of power the rangers leaped from the Megazord onto the ground below to watch in horror as the Green Ranger sent a blast of magic at the Megazord disassembling it into individual zords, before firing individual green blasts at each of the five zords. When the smoke cleared from the blasts, the zords were gone. In panic Kimberly reached out with her connection to Ellisande, only to get a wave of reassurance that she and the other zords were alive and well.

With the loss of their zords the rangers were forced to watch as Goldar and Scorpina celebrated their victory. They even heard Rita's evil laugh echo through the air. But they quickly snapped out of their stunned state when Goldar walked up the Green Range and clapped him on the back. "Well done Tommy, with your help we have finally defeated the Power Rangers."

Jason, Trini, Zack, and Billy stared at the still giant Green Ranger in disbelief. Kimberly meanwhile looked on at Tommy with acceptance and determination. "No." Jason whispered. "It's not possible." In desperation Jason teleported back to the Command Center to have Alpha confirm the news. Arriving at the base in a flash of red light, followed shortly by his friends Jason asked Alpha if he could confirm the news.

Alpha moved towards the computer counsels and after a few minutes of tense silence only interrupted by the clacking of keys a beep sounded. "I'm sorry rangers, but I'm afraid that the Green Ranger is Tommy Oliver, as you all suspected." The small robot said dejectedly.

All the rangers except Kimberly paled at the confirmation as they thought about all the implications of their new friend being their biggest enemy. Alpha turned to Kimberly and after noticing that she didn't seem all that concerned with the revelation of the Green Ranger's identity he asked, "Kimberly, why aren't you concerned about the revelation of the identity of the Green Ranger like the others?"

"Because earlier today Ellisande suggested that Tommy might be the Green Ranger, and after thinking about it all day I was pretty sure that she was right. I mean thinking back, I realized that the Green Ranger fights just like Tommy. Fast, sure, and powerful. Also I remembered that when I shook his hand before the Green Ranger appeared I felt a sense of rightness and belonging, which makes sense now that I know that Ellisande and Caldazar are mates."

"And if Zordon is right then, you and Tommy will also be mates." Zack argued causing Kim to blush a little, angering the Black Ranger. "Kim, you can't like this guy. He's evil. He destroyed our zords. He's nearly killed us multiple times, and let's not forget the fact that he's working for Rita, the one who is trying to conquer Earth. Girl you have to face the facts, that your boyfriend is evil, and he was never our friend."

Kimberly glared back at her friend. "The zords are not destroyed. When Tommy beat the Megazord and separated it into the individual zords, he moved them somewhere else." Seeing dubious glances from everyone she elaborated. "I contacted Ellisande right after she vanished and she told me that she and the others are fine. But unfortunately when the Green Ranger teleported them away he broke your connection with your zords, so you need to reestablish them before you can call upon them again."

"The question now is, how do we reestablish our connection with our zords?" Jason asked, trying to get the team focused off the Green Ranger problem, and ease the tension in the group.

Alpha was quick to answer. "The only sure way to do that is to physically meet the zords, but since they were teleported to different locations than normally, it will take time to locate the Ithai, Lin, Rotem, and Fannar. Luckily Tommy was unable to destroy Kimberly's connection with Ellisande, considering the fact that Kimberly and her powers are fully bonded."

"Alpha we are going to need all the help we can get. Do you have any guess on how soon Zordon will be found?" Jason asked.

"I am not sure. But if Billy stays to help program the search for the zords, then I can optimize the search for Zordon." Alpha said, causing the Blue Ranger to immediately move towards the computers to start working on the search.

"Alright here's the plan. Today we rest and recover, and tomorrow we get our zords back and beat Tommy. But try to avoid Tommy at all costs tomorrow; we don't want to give him any more chances to beat us." Jason said, receiving nods from Trini, Zack, and Billy.

"_Tomorrow is going to be a very important day._" Kim thought.

"_It is little one. But do not follow your friends in their plan. Despite what they might think, you have a positive influence on Tommy._" Ellisande told her charge.

**And that is the end of my fifth chapter. I know that it didn't strictly follow the show, but remember that this is an AU, and besides there are reasons for everything. I hope that you enjoyed the fight scenes. The next chapter will be out soon.**

**Some of you might think that Tommy was a little harsh on Skull, and I agree, but remember, that not only is he brainwashed at the moment, but his behavior is also being influenced by the Sword of Darkness. Besides the scare was funny, and Skull will back off from Kim for a while, always a good thing.**

**1) Remember Tommy's normal eyes are now green; it's the physical mark of the Dragon. He hides his eyes behind an illusion.**

**2) This was my thought when I re-watched the episode. I mean I thought that their victory was a hollow one, considering the fact that they had to use the Megazord, and a new weapon in order to defeat the Green Ranger, who hadn't even grown.**

**3) The reason he knew this technique is because it is one of the Ninjetti abilities that was leaked to Tommy during the brief time that he awakened his falcon spirit.**

**Here is a sneak peak at the sixth chapter. **

In response to the insult, Regin simply laughed with a voice heavily painted with insanity. "Well said lizard." The spirit mocked back causing the great dragon to bristle in response. "But what you failed to mention is the reason why our dear friend Tommy is here." Regin claimed before turning his attention to Tommy. "You, most glorious master, are here to choose. To choose between us as your brother and ally, one of us will stay, and bind ourselves to serve you and your line till it ends, and the other will be cast off."

**Now be sure and leave a review letting me know what you think of the chapter and story. Also feel free to ask any questions, and I will try to answer them without spoiling anything that is coming up.**


	6. Costs of Freedom

Ch 6

**Note: I don't own Power Rangers, but I do own this story. If I did, it would probably have gone more like this.**

**I must admit that I have been very eager to get around to writing this chapter. I hope that you enjoy this chapter, and just to let you know there is likely to be two more chapters so don't be too disappointed.**

**Now I hope that you enjoy the longest chapter that I have ever posted. And tell me **_**specifically**_** what you liked about this chapter, I put a whole lot of work into getting the chapter right, so be sure to leave a review telling me what you think about it.**

**A quick reminder: Caldazar=Dragonzord, Ellisande=Pterodactyl zord, Lin=Saber Tooth Tiger zord, Ithai=Tyrannosaurus zord, Rotem=Triceratops zord, and Fannar=Mastodon zord**

**This chapter **_**will**_** end differently than the show, enjoy.**

-School Next Day-

As Kimberly was walking to school she took the time to mentally prepare herself for the day; for both Ellisande and her own feelings hinted at the fact that today would be very important. She knew that her friends expected for her to stay with them all day and keep away from Tommy. But she wouldn't do that, Tommy needed her; she knew that something was wrong with him and that he needed help to get through it.

As she stiffened her resolve to carry out her own plan, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Spinning around her eyes were met with those of the very boy that she was thinking about. "Tommy! Geez, why did you have to scare me like that!"Kimberly huffed as she lightly slapped him on the arm.

Tommy simply answered her with a grin before explaining. "I thought you would have heard me before I reached you, after all I did call your name."

"You did?" Tommy nodded. "Well I guess that I was just a bit too preoccupied with my thoughts." Kimberly said with a blush staining her cheeks, embarrassed at being scared when she was thinking about the very boy beside her.

"Yeah, that happens to the best of us. Anyway, I was wondering if you would let me escort you to your classes today?" Tommy asked with a light blush dusting his cheeks. This question caused Kimberly's blush to brighten considerably. After fiddling with her hair for a few seconds Kim turned to him with a bright smile and nodded yes, causing Tommy's eyes to shimmer before they changed from a deep warm brown, to an expressive green. Kim stared into the bright green depths, that could cause fear, and terror, but at the moment all she saw was an infinite amount of warmth in them.

Feeling her gaze on his eyes Tommy quickly checked the illusion, only to realize that during his excitement at Kim agreeing to allow him to walk her to his classes that it had fallen. Quickly turning his head to the side Tommy passed a hand over his eye's; resetting the illusion before turning his gaze back to the petite pink clad girl walking at his side. Knowing he had to think of something to explain his sudden change in eye color Tommy quickly thought up an excuse. "So what did you think of my little magic trick?" He casually asked.

"Magic? You do magic?" Kimberly asked playing along with his excuse, knowing full well that the green eyes were the mark that Caldazar had placed on him, just like Ellisande's pink Pterodactyl image on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'd show you some more, but I left my deck of cards and other props back home. The only things that I have with me are my books, and some sheet music."

"At first glance I wouldn't have pegged you as the musical type, but now that I think of it, you would probably be pretty good at music. I just can't see you going to recitals though." Kimberly responded truthfully, although the thought of Tommy in a suit was a nice one. 'So what kind of instrument do you play?"

"I am working on mastering the flute and piccolo. Recently I inherited an old antique flute from my favorite uncle, so I want to make him proud and learn how to play it like a pro. So what about you; do you play any instruments?" Tommy asked with a grin.

"Yeah I play the guitar. I started just last year, but I am already writing my own songs."

"Very impressive, so … Kim what time is it?"

Glancing at her watch Kimberly quickly caught onto Tommy's meaning. "We're going to be late, come on!" Kim cried out as she broke out into a run, with Tommy keeping pace with her as they ran to the school.

After a few minutes of running the two teens arrived at the steps of the school with a few minutes to spare. For the two athletic teens the run was no problem. It was only after Tommy dropped Kim off at her classroom that things became difficult.

Once she had sat down in her seat next to Trini, Kimberly knew that she was going to have to endure her best friend go on about Tommy and the threat he posed.

"Kim, tell me that wasn't Tommy." Trini said, hoping that she was wrong and that she hadn't just seen their greatest and newest enemy drop her best friend off at her class.

Sighing, Kim turned towards her friend. "Actually it was; Tommy asked if he could walk me to my classes while we were walking to school."

"So he also walked you to school." Trini accused. "Kim I know that you like this guy, but you need to remember what this guy did." Trini whispered, trying to be inconspicuous. "Kim, this guy took down our entire team with little to no difficulty. You can't trust him."

Kim looked down at the desk under her hands as she listened to her best friend's words. "I know what he has done." Kim replied bringing Trini's full attention back to her. "…But I know that he wouldn't do any of this to us." Kim said her voice full of quiet confidence.

"I'm sorry Kim, but his actions speak for themselves. Now listen, we need to focus on regaining our zords." Trini said in an even quieter voice, after making sure that no one else was paying attention to the two best friends talking. "Only after we get them back do we have a chance to beat him. Kim, you're my best friend, but you need to face the reality that we need to stop this guy." Trini said with a note of finality. Kimberly sighed, knowing that she would have to face talks like this from all of her friends in every class.

-Later-

As the last bell of the day sounded Kimberly nearly leapt for joy. Finally she would be free from the angered looks and lectures from her friends about Tommy. She felt that if she had to listen to one more argument over how evil Tommy was and the lack of hope for him, she would've screamed.

But as she walked out of her last class she caught sight of Tommy rushing past students to get to her classroom. Letting a smile cross her face she took time to admire the green and white clad teen. He was wearing a pair of baggy forest green cargo pants with some golden stitching that looked strangely familiar running down the right pants leg. His torso was clothed with a nice white shirt that had a small silver design on it, as well as a nicely made, but simple green hooded jacket. And around his neck hung a black cord that dipped down past his shirts collar, hiding the design that he had worn ever since he got his Green Ranger powers.

"Hey Kim." Tommy called in greeting once he reached the pink clad girl, who was dressed in a pair of pink shorts, and a light pink top. "So I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me today."

"I would like that. But don't you have something to do today?"

Tommy gave her a curious look. "No, I don't have anything to do today. Why'd you ask?"

"It's just that you have been pretty busy this past week, with unpacking, cleaning, and you said that you had a guest coming over. I just don't want to impose." She replied.

Tommy looked down at the pink clad girl and gave her a smile. "Well even if I did have something to do today, I think I would rather hang out with you." He responded earning a blush and a bright smile from Kimberly.

"In that case, I'd love to. So how 'bout we head to the harbor. And maybe you can show me that magic trick with your eyes again." Kim replied as she linked her arm with Tommy before heading out.

As Jason and the others watched their friend and enemy walk away arm in arm they grew only more concerned. "Billy, you're the genius, tell me that you have a plan for this." Jason asked with worry clearly tinting his voice.

Sighing, the Blue Ranger stuck his hands into his overall pockets as he explained the situation to his friends. "Unfortunately, there is not much that we can do. If we pursue her and attempt to protect her from an attack that she claims won't happen, then we run the risk of Tommy spotting us. And we know for certain that he knows three of our identities. Thus we risk facing the Green Ranger's ire, and without the backup of our mountainous friends I wouldn't recommend confronting him. But if we leave and head to the Command Center then we can focus on getting our zords back as well as finding Zordon. I'm sad to say this guys, but we need to let her go. If our theory about the two of them is correct then it is unlikely that he will hurt her."

While most of the ranger's didn't understand the entirety of their friend's answer, they all understood the general idea. Although Trini brought up a point that none of them considered. "While he may not hurt her, there is the possibility that he will turn her to his side." Trini proclaimed bringing up a point that none of them wished to think about.

After a moment of deep and troubled silence Jason spoke up. "We'll just have to trust that she'll be okay. And besides, I don't think that Tommy knows who the Black and Pink Rangers are, so he shouldn't be in any danger." At their leader's words everyone's nerves eased a little.

"Hey guys, by now Alpha should have finished locating our zords, if the Green Ranger does act up it would be wise to be at full power." Billy said. In silent agreement the four teens headed for a back alley to teleport back to the Command Center. In four flashes of color the teens were gone.

-Lunar Palace-

Rita gazed down on at Earth from her observation room in a foul mood, causing everyone in the grand building to step lightly. The cause of her irritation was the same as it has been for the past year; the Power Rangers, specifically the annoying Kimberly Hart. For it was her who was affecting her son so. And while she knew in her head that it was not only the Pink Ranger's fault that her son was falling away from her, she could not bring herself to blame her son for his feelings.

Already he had spared the Pink Ranger much of the hurt that he had inflicted on her friends. And it was clear to everyone that he liked the cheery pink girl. Yet until today they had simply flirted and spent the time after their battles with each other. But now they were for all practical purposes going on a date together. It was at times like this that Rita wished she and Zedd had taken the effort to remove his feeling for the girl from him. But she knew now as she did then that it would have been an impossible task to do, it was hard enough altering his memories of his entire life so far, but to remove his feeling for the girl would have been an impossible task, and even if it did succeed there was no telling how damaging it would have been to Tommy. It irritated her that her son was courting his enemy, but she knew that there was very little that she could do to stop or hinder his actions.

Although that did not stop her from being amused at how her son was dividing the Power Rangers. He had already given each of the rangers a taste of true fear. He had been a split second away from killing both Zack and Jason; Trini had been beside herself with loss and rage at Jason's abduction, an emotion that was entirely new to the Asian beauty. But it was truly entertaining to watch Billy struggle as his confidence in himself had been all but shattered as his skills were insufficient to even slow down Tommy, and his keen mind could not come up with a strategy to overcome her son's skills and tactics. But what was most amusing of all was how Kimberly's devotion to her son was slowly separating her from the other Power Rangers.

Feeling slightly better Rita walked out of her observation room to grab a quick bite to eat. After all it was highly unlikely that anything important would happen while she was eating her late lunch.

-Earth-

As Tommy and Kimberly walked towards the city's harbor, Tommy had removed the illusion around his eyes at Kim's request; they swapped stories about their lives as well as asking each other questions trying to get a better feel for the other person. "So tell me Kim, have you always lived here in Angel Grove, or did you live somewhere else before hand?" Tommy asked.

"Well I've lived here my entire life. Although I did move houses here, so I guess you can say that I have moved around a little. But what about you, where did you live before you came to Angel Grove?" Kim asked as she gave Tommy's arm a squeeze, sending s wave of pink energy into his body.

Inside Tommy's mind the chains that held his original memories loosened. "I've actually lived in many places. Blue Bay Harbor, Reefside, and I did live briefly in Briarwood." Tommy spoke, causing Kim to nod. Although when he actually realized what he had said he flinched. Because according to his memories he had never even heard of those places, yet at the same time he could remember each of those places in vivid detail. Shaking his head to clear away the strange memories Tommy tried to focus on the girl beside him.

"Are you alright?" Kimberly asked as she felt his body tense for a moment.

"Yeah, I was just reliving some of my memories." Tommy replied in an uncertain tone. "So anyway, can you tell me how you met your friends?" He questioned trying to draw her focus from him.

"Alright. You see, my mom is friends with Jason's mom, so we grew up together. I used to try to get him to play dolls with me, but he never gave in, otherwise I would have some awesome black mail on him. I met Trini when I was four. We met at the park one day. Apparently she had just moved in on the same street as Jason, and so he was taking the opportunity to show her around. We met and, well we all just clicked. I actually didn't become friends with Billy and Zack until last year." Kim replied.

"So do you remember when Jason and Trini started to like each other?" Tommy asked with a smirk on his face.

Kimberly smiled at the boy walking beside her. "Looking back I remember this one time when we were eight and – hey it's my turn to ask a question. And for trying to sneak in a second question, I get to ask two." Kimberly said as she lightly swatted Tommy's shoulder.

Smiling down at Kim Tommy shrugged his shoulders innocently. "Fine fine, so what so you want to know?"

Smiling up at him she asked again about his childhood. "Tell me who your best friends were, or are."

Tommy again felt an impossible memory bubble to the surface. But since the only other truthful answer would have been to tell her about his parent's minions he had to go with it. "Back when I lived in Reefside I met two of my best friends, David and Romana. David was a pretty smart guy, with an amazing talent for languages. Last I heard he had about five languages mastered, and was working on three others. Romana was the daughter of two pilots; she was always going on about wanting to fly. I remember this one time when she, David, and I had designed and constructed a glider. But unfortunately David's brother discovered it and destroyed it. He and David never got along. Anyway David had a nasty fear of heights, but he mastered the fear after I dared him to spend the night in Romana's tree house. He was scared, but when Romana joined him he got over the fright. After that his interests shifted from linguistics to flight like Romana. This all happened when I was eleven and they were fourteen. Last time they wrote me they had finished high school and were both enrolling into the Air force; with David planning on proposing to Romana soon."

Kimberly nodded and smiled, glad to know that he still kept in touch with his old friends. Taking a moment, Kimberly pondered on what her next question should be, and after a prompt from Ellisande, she had an answer. "Hey Tommy, can you tell me why you're so obsessed with the harbor?"

Tommy silently debated with himself, about what he should tell her. After a minute of silent debate, Tommy gave in and answered her to the best of his ability. "I feel something pulling me to the harbor. All my life I always had the feeling that there was something waiting for me under the water. I have always felt comforted as I stare into the depths." Tommy visibly flinched; as he realized that he was recounting more impossible memories; but realizing that he had already started he decided to finish up the explanation. "But until recently I was never allowed to go scuba diving, so when I arrived in Angel Grove, I felt the usual pull towards the harbor, but ever since this week has started the pull has been getting stronger. Like today for example the harbor was one of the only things I could think about."

"That's pretty strange, but then again we do live in a town with super heroes and monsters, so I guess that it is not all that strange. I mean I sometimes get the feeling that if I leap off a cliff or something then I can fly." Kimberly said.

"I get that same feeling about flying."(1) Tommy whispered. The two teens were close now to the harbor, so close in fact that they could smell the salt on the air. But with each step closer Caldazar's voice in Tommy's head echoed louder.

"_Summon me. Summon me! Summon ME!_" The great dragon roared in Tommy's head with a sense of great urgency in his voice.

During the last part of the walk Tommy remained silent, as he tried to deal with the strange memories, Caldazar's constant roar, and the evil of the Sword of Darkness trying to block and kill the dragon's voice. It was a literal battle inside Tommy's head. Kimberly, sensing that something important was going on with her future mate remained silent squeezing his arm in reassurance and hoped for the best; for both their sakes.

Once the two had reached the water Tommy's body was coiled as tight as a spring as he felt all the conflict inside him grow stronger. More impossible memories started to surface. His first days in middle school, even though he had been trapped inside the space prison with his parents until last year. His first martial arts class, the day he learned to swim. More and more memories started to surface. In desperation Tommy summoned forth the Dragon Dagger in hopes that by calling forth on some of his Green Ranger powers he might stop the strange memories. In a flash of green light the dagger appeared in his right hand.

Catching sight of the flash of green out of the corner of her eye, Kimberly turned to see the Dragon Dagger in Tommy's hand. Nervous at how and why he had summoned his weapon without morphing Kim, nonetheless remained standing quietly next to Tommy.

While summoning the Dragon Dagger stemmed the tide of the memories, it also caused the Sword of Darkness to become more active in return. The evil blade was asserting its full power in attempting to block out Caldazar's presence from Tommy. Feeling the sword's intentions Tommy drew forth more power from Caldazar, morphing himself into the Green Ranger. While he knew that it was unwise to morph in public, particularly right next to Kimberly, he really did not have much of an option, with the Sword of Darkness and Caldazar clashing with each other; it was quickly becoming necessary to choose a side.

Typically whenever one of the Rangers morph into their armor, they release a brief power surge. This time was no different, except for the fact that with Kimberly so close to Tommy and the unique nature of their powers, she was involuntarily morphed. In a flash of pink light Kimberly became the Pink Ranger. Kimberly stared at herself in shock, having never morphed without the use of her morpher. But her shock at what happened to her was quickly erased when she heard the screams of the harbor workers once they realized that the Green Ranger was there.

Glancing at Tommy to see how he would react to the peoples fear Kim took note that instead of moving from his position at the water's edge; he remained standing still his eyes glowing a bright green as he stared into the harbor's depths. Despite all the panicking and screaming that the Green Ranger's sudden appearance had caused, Tommy seemed to be totally unaware of anything. Whatever was going on she knew that it was important, something that could very well determine both his and her own life.

-Tommy's Mind-

In his sixteen years of life Tommy had learned to meditate in an effort to keep calm and focus himself, and in the strange memories he learned meditation to help center himself after he was uprooted from his home almost constantly. But never in his life had he ever entered or seen such a place.

Tommy found himself standing on a tall mountain, at the base of which stood a large forest and a deep bay. The mountain was strange, since it seemed to be made of a pure natural white stone, with veins of silver lines running through it. On the outcropping where he stood Tommy noticed that there was a nest in which slept a pure white male falcon. Looking at the white bird Tommy felt a deep connection with the sleeping bird, but nonetheless Tommy dragged his gaze away to continue examining the strange place he found himself. Gazing out towards the bay, Tommy took note of what appeared to be a distant island, but before he could take a good look at the island he saw a black wall of energy fall into place directly in between the far off island and his own.

From the wall of black energy emerged a form that began to walk towards Tommy through the air, as if he was walking on an invisible road. The form was in the shape of a man, but the closer it came to him the less like a man it looked. For instance, it had knives in the place of fingers. The arms of the strange creature seemed stretch as it walked, and on the feet of the creature which couldn't even be called feet; rather they looked like an arch with razor sharp claws on the appendage. But as Tommy looked on the creature he decided that it was the face that looked entirely wrong on the creature, for it looked eerily similar to his own. But instead of green eyes the creature had eyes, blacker than space that burned with a cruelty that was only seen in the eyes of mass murderers, and the hair was as black as a raven's feathers.

When the creature was about halfway across to the cliff that Tommy was standing on, Tommy felt a power rising. Turning his attention from the creature towards the source of the power Tommy took note that it came from the bay area, specifically a large cave overlooking the bay. From the cave a large green form shot out. The form was that of a large four legged, large winged, green scaled, and strong tailed dragon, with lines of gold encrusting and accentuating his spines and claws. (2) The great dragon gave a loud roar to the sky before he banked with his wings and made his way towards Tommy.

In minutes both the dragon and the strange creature had reached the cliff on which Tommy was standing. The dragon landed near the sleeping falcon, but took care in not disturbing the bird; while the creature stood at the edge of the cliff with his back to the black wall; and standing between them was Tommy.

"Alright what's going on? And where am I?" Tommy asked aloud.

"You are in the depths of your mind child." The dragon answered with a tense tone as he and the strange creature were glaring at each other with bitter hatred. "I am Caldazar, and the evil abomination you see before you is Regin, the spirit of the Sword of Darkness." Caldazar growled out.

In response to the insult, Regin simply laughed with a voice heavily painted with insanity. "Well said lizard." The spirit mocked back causing the great dragon to bristle in response. "But what you failed to mention is the reason why our dear friend Tommy is here." Regin claimed before turning his attention to Tommy. "You, most glorious master, are here to choose. To choose between us as your brother and ally, one of us will stay, and bind ourselves to serve you and your line till it ends, and the other will be cast off."

Glancing between the two spirits, Tommy knew that there was something deeper going on. "Why should I? What's really going on?"

"You must choose, not for our benefit, but for yours. Your choice will define your future." Caldazar said.

"Does this have anything to do with those strange impossible memories that have been popping into my mind?" Tommy asked.

"It has everything to do with those memories. Those memories that you claim to be impossible are in fact a whole lot more real than what you think you know." Caldazar claimed. "I want to help you regain your true self, help you fight. I do not want to see my friend and partner that I have waited over ten thousand years for to live a lie."

Regin snickered in insane glee, as he saw a flaw in the dragon's line of thoughts. "Master, your scaly friend claims to want to help you, but if you allow him to do what he wants and he sets those memories free, you will likely face insanity. You have only experienced a few memories and already your mind is being thrown into chaos. Now what I want to do is to destroy those useless lies and bring back your peace of mind, but I cannot do it without your permission." Regin offered.

Caldazar roared in anger. "That is not what you want to do, and you and I both know it. Thomas, if he destroys those memories, you will _never_ be free. Not all the magic in the universe could reverse the damage that will be done."

Tommy turned his attention to Caldazar. "What would happen? And how would it be worse than facing insanity?" Tommy challenged, his green eyes locking with Caldazar's own bright emerald eyes.

"You would cease to be who you are. You would have no emotions, except for anger, hate, and rage. Your martial skills and magical talents would remain, but you would entirely lose your humanity. No longer would you be the son of Alric and Leanna. You would no longer be the son of anyone; you would only be brother to Regin the betrayer and deceiver. And most importantly you would lose Kimberly."

Tommy started at this as he saw a brief vision of what he would become if he walked down the path Caldazar spoke of. He saw a man in dark green armor, so dark it was nearly black, roaming across the stars, killing and slaying all that stood before him. His mom and dad killed for trying to limit his slaughter, all the powers in the universe gathering together to stop him. His friends David and Romana, who he only knew from the impossible memories that had surfaced during his talk with Kim, but nonetheless felt protective of, lying dead with their bodies burned and scorched by black lightning. But worst of all, he saw Kimberly dead, with a broken heart and Regin's knife fingers dug into her neck.

"He lies!" Regin shouted, jolting Tommy from the vision. "I would never ever destroy or even touch your love for the pink girl. I care not if you chase her and love her. I would give you my full power, and stand beside you as your brother till the end of time. I would never betray family."

"You may not betray family, but what about a master." Caldazar retorted. "If you choose his path you will forever be bound to a fate that you cannot escape, you would kill everyone you love, everyone you hold dear. And why? Because the root and core of who you are is located in those memories, that Regin wants to destroy. The person who you were and who you think you are, would disappear forever, lost only to be replaced with an insane brother."

"And what would you do, oh _Great Dragon_?" Regin sneered. "If he agrees to your proposition he will still have to face going insane, all those memories unleashed all at once, that would drive anyone insane. And let's not forget the fact that he would have to live with you as his brother for the rest of his life. And pray tell who are Alric and Leanna, if I recall correctly dear Tommy here is the son of Zedd and Rita." Regin cackled gleefully.

As Tommy glanced between Caldazar and Regin he felt his decision swayed towards the middle after Regin's argument. Everything that he knew and thought he knew was being brought into question. Who were his parents, who was he.

Caldazar looked over at his charge and answered the evil spirit's accusations. "I would not release all the memories at once. If I did then you would indeed face insanity as Regin claims. I would release to you only what you could handle, and as the days pass by you would become yourself again. As to whom Alric and Leanna are, they are your parents."

"Liar!" Regin shouted. "I know for a fact that Rita and Zedd are Tommy's parents, I have been in the presence of all of them, and I can tell that this boy's power is related to that of Rita and Zedd."

Caldazar drew himself up and blew out a stream of green flames at the evil spirit. "You dare to call me a liar. I was there. I was there when Thomas's life changed. I chose him as my partner before he was even born, so trust me when I say that his parents are Alric and Leanna. But they are also Zedd and Rita. Your parents, your true parents, are being possessed by Zedd and Rita."

Regin opened his mouth to respond but Tommy beat him to it. "Enough! You have both made your points. Let me decide." Both dragon and evil spirit quieted and took a seat to watch the teenager pace up and down the cliff as he pondered what he should choose.

Tommy's thoughts raced as he considered each of the arguments that were presented. "_If I agree and choose Regin, then I won't have to deal with all these strange and confusing memories. But Caldazar, says that the root and core of who I am is located in those memories. But the memories are causing me a lot of trouble, and Regin promises that he can and will get rid of them. But … if I do I might very well turn out to be exactly like that vision showed. And losing Kimberly is not an option. But both claim to support my feelings for Kimberly, so I guess the question is, who do I trust more?_" Looking back on his memories, both the ones that he had, and the impossible ones that had popped up recently, he knew that Caldazar had looked after him to the best of his ability, while Regin had tried to block his connection with Caldazar.

Turning to face Caldazar and Regin, Tommy hardened his resolve and made his decision. "I have chosen Caldazar as my brother and ally." Tommy declared causing both himself and the great dragon to pulse with a green light.

In that instant Regin's pleasant attitude dropped entirely. "You can't do this to me. You can't! Why would you choose to face insanity, what could possibly make you want to risk losing your mind?"

Tommy turned to look at the sword spirit. "The risks of losing my sanity are small when I compare them to what I might lose if I choose to follow your path." Tommy remarked. "Now if you wouldn't mind leaving."

Regin shook in rage. "You are a child of the two most evil wizards in over five thousand years. Do you honestly think that your little pink girlfriend will stay with you when she learns who you truly are? Face it Tommy you're a child of evil."

Caldazar glared at the evil spirit, but before he could speak Tommy opened his mouth and spoke. And this time it was more like the real Tommy. "I am a child of the light and of the day, I belong not to the night or to the darkness."

Glaring at Tommy Regin whispered. "If you cast me off, I promise you this, that you _will _face insanity. I promise you." Tommy turned his back on the evil spirit and walked towards Caldazar. Regin roared in rage and leaped at Tommy. Acting quickly Tommy raised an emerald shield, blocking the insane angry spirit from reaching him and tearing him to pieces. Caldazar rose from his crouch and launched a torrent of green flame at the spirit of the sword. Regin howled in agony as he was assaulted by the emerald flames.

Retreating from the shield and flames Regin quickly fled to the large black wall of energy. Once the evil spirit had rejoined with the majority of his power he quickly moved the wall of energy so as to cover the entirety of Tommy's mindscape.

Seeing the danger of what Regin was attempting to do Tommy quickly concentrated on returning to his body. In a flash of green lightning and white flames Tommy disappeared from his mindscape and returned to his body, but not before Caldazar called out an urgent reminder to summon him.

-Real World-

Upon regaining awareness of the world around him, Tommy raised the Dragon Dagger to his helmet. And seconds later a high pitched tune echoed throughout the entire city. The tune coming from the green and gold dagger lingered in the air as it rose and fell to Tommy's movements. The entire city looked towards the harbor in slight fear, for the tune, while powerful and haunting, gave no indication as to what was to come.

Seconds later those still at the harbor, who had been staring at the Green Ranger in both fear and anger turned their attention to the harbor itself. For the normally placid and calm water had started to bubble and roil. Everyone who could see the water stopped and stared in awe and terror as a zord emerged from the oceans depths.

Tommy watched as Caldazar in his armored zord form rose from the waters. Caldazar's bladed dorsal finned head rose from the watery depths first, his blazing green eyes focused on his master and friend. Seconds later Caldazar had raised himself completely out of the water his green, gold and silver body shining brightly in the sun. Raising his head to the sky the great dragon roared to the heavens. (3) To every civilian watching the sight they all to the one trembled in terror at the giant zord that was easily equal in size to the Megazord. Behind his helmet Tommy let a smile cross his face. As Caldazar approached the land Tommy leapt from his spot near the harbor's waters and onto the top of Caldazars head where he rested against the dragon's dorsal fin. But as soon as Tommy's feet touched the great zord a brief flash of black light surrounded the zord and master.

To Kimberly on the ground the emergence of Caldazar was a good sign, a sign that Tommy was breaking free of the evil spell. But when she saw the black flash she knew that things were about to get bad. With no options left Kimberly activated the communicator in her helmet and called the Command Center, to warn the others about the situation. "Guys, we have a major problem down here at the harbor."

"I am aware of the situation Kimberly." A deep and wise voice responded.

"Zordon is that you?" Kim asked her shock clearly heard over the radio.

"Yes Kimberly, it is I. I had returned only a few minutes ago. It seems that something was blocking me from returning back to Earth. But that is irrelevant. I am sending Jason and the others to back you up. Alpha has informed me that they have each finished reconnecting with their zords. Be extremely careful, I sense that the Green Ranger is not himself."

"I know Zordon, Ellisande and I think that Tommy is under an evil spell."

"I think you're right. But nonetheless, you cannot let your feelings for the boy stop you from fighting at your best."

"I understand." Kim whispered irritated and confused about the whole situation. But she didn't have time to dwell on the thoughts for seconds later the other ranger arrived fully morphed.

"Kim what happened." Jason asked, scared and worried about his little sister.

"Well…"

"No time for questions dudes." Zack called out. "We got to deal with the giant dragon that is about to blow us up." At this everyone turned their heads upwards only to see Tommy raise his arm commanding his zord to open fire. Caldazar, in response raised his clawed hands and from his fingers, rockets shot out.

The rangers screamed in panic. Only to be shocked as the rockets went wide, almost as if Tommy and Caldazar weren't aiming for them. And indeed they weren't. For when the black flash surrounded both Caldazar and Tommy, Regin had cast one of the most powerful illusion spells that was known. The sword spirit could impose his image on anything and anyone, causing the Ranger and dragon to think that they were attacking him. And the best part of the spell was that until the Sword of Darkness was forcibly removed from Tommy's possession, he would continue to see the false images. Although with Caldazar and Tommy's strength and power, the illusion was temporarily shattered from time to time, causing both to get true glimpses of what they were attacking which inadvertently was the only thing that saved the other rangers, considering Tommy's fight was not with them today.

-Lunar Palace-

In her place on the moon Rita was alerted to what was going on. "WHAT! My son has summoned Caldazar! How is that possible, the Sword of Darkness was supposed to block his connection to the dragon." The evil sorceress cried out. Quickly moving to her telescope she turned her attention to what was going on in Angel Grove. Seeing Caldazar and Tommy wrecking havoc in the city, she thought everything was still acceptable, but as she reached out with her magic she felt Regin's spell, and she knew that the outcome of this battle would be of unimaginable importance.

-Earth-

Realizing the danger that they were in the rangers quickly summoned their zords. Seconds later each of the ranger's zords appeared, heeding their master's call. As Kimberly soared in the sky above the city with Ellisande, she felt the zord's anguish at having to fight her mate. "_I know that it will be difficult. But we have to help them. But before we do that we need to stop them._"

Ellisande heaved a sigh, but nonetheless she understood Kimberly's point. "_I understand. It's just that this is going to be hard. Maybe you'll understand once you get married._" Ellisande remarked causing the Pink Ranger to blush deeply beneath her helmet.

Suddenly the com system picked up the others radio traffic. "Jason what's the plan?" Trini asked.

"We'll form the Megazord later if needed. But it seems that Tommy isn't at the top of his game today. So we're going to take advantage of our numbers." Jason said, as he remembered the close missile strikes. Everyone gave their assent to the plan.

While the rangers had summoned their zords, Tommy had slipped into Caldazar's cockpit. From the inside he watched in anger as the sword spirit seemed to split into five versions before his very eyes. Growling to himself he sent Caldazar forward to attack the closest 'Regin'.

Billy jerked himself out of his strategizing as he noticed Caldazar heading straight for him. Flinching slightly the genius quickly sent Rotem into reverse, just in time to avoid being crushed to death by the dragon's foot. But before he had a chance to fire the cannons that his zord carried on its back Tommy had Caldazar pivot on his right foot bringing Caldazar's tail smashing into Rotem, sending the powerful Triceratops zord crashing onto its side. Billy found himself staring in disbelief at the newest zord, simply awed by its power and speed. But he would quickly get a better look at the zord's power as the Green Ranger and Caldazar turned to face the others.

Jason upon seeing his friend casually swatted aside pushed his zord forward. Ithai charged forward roaring in challenge to the dragon, causing the very earth to quake. But Caldazar remained unmoved, as his tail added extra balance. Instead of faltering the green duo simply turned towards the charging red zord and raising one hand Caldazar sent five rockets smashing into Ithai. Roaring in pain and shock the Tyrannosaurus stumbled, slowing its charge, which unfortunately gave Cladazar the advantage. Jason watched as the Dragonzord rushed forward at an incredible pace.

In a manner of seconds Caldazar unleashed a series of slashes upon the red lizard. Jason growled in anger as his zord was tossed around by the dragon's superior strength and size. But as the slashes continued to rain down on Ithai, Jason noticed Trini quickly approaching tom the rear. Grinning to himself as he saw what she had in mind Jason, flooded his zord with power as he attempted to keep Caldazar and Tommy's attention focused solely on him.

Tommy smirked to himself as he watched the 'Regin' in front of him attempt to draw his attention. And while his increased efforts were admirable, they were for naught, for he clearly heard the other 'Regin' fast approaching from behind. Smiling to himself in anticipation, he started up the drill on Caldazars tail. Timing his attack with the sounds of the approaching footsteps , Tommy and Caldazar waited until the precise moment for them to attack. As Trini and Lin leaped at the back of the giant dragon she and her zord were halted in their attack, as Caldazar's tail suddenly shot up from the ground and speared the cat in the chest with the drill tipped tail. Trini and her zord screamed in shock and pain as the drill sheared through Lin's armor.

Jason and Ithai watched in shock and horror at the sight and of the Trini and Lin in pain. Jason pushed more power into his zord, causing the body of Ithai to glow a bright red. Roaring in rage Jason and Ithai charged at Caldazar. As they closed with the dragon Jason noticed that the red dots on the zord's chest began to glow. And just before the charging zord reached Caldazar, a large green shield appeared in front of the green dragon. Seconds later Ithai crashed into the shield as he attempted to get to the zord, but as soon as Ithai made contact with the green shield he was repulsed by a surge of green lightning that sent him crashing to the ground in exhaustion.

Zack, after having lifted Billy and Rotem back onto their feet charged at Tommy and Caldazar, intent on finishing the fight. Kimberly and Ellisande, saw what Zack was planning, so they prepared to make a pass. As Ellisande completed her turn, she charged her twin cannons and after a brief pause from both Kimberly and Ellisande, the pink duo opened fire on Caldazar, who was turning to face the charging Mastodon.

The shots from Ellisande's cannons peppered the back of Caldazar, causing the dragon to roar in pain and shock. While the shots were unexpected and painful, both Caldazar and Tommy knew better than to turn their attention from the rapidly approaching Mastodon. Angered Caldazar stepped forward towards Zack and the charging Fannar. As the Mastodon lowered its head and prepared to ram the dragon, Caldazar quickly sidestepped out of the path of Fannar's charge, and as the black zord raced past, Caldazar sent the zord crashing to the ground with a kick to its side. As the zord fell, it trumpeted in pain, which escalated as Caldazar walked over and stomped on the mammoth.

With one foot planted on the Flannar, Tommy and Caldazar turned their attention to the skies to look for the 'Regin' that had attacked them from behind. As they scanned the skies, they finally caught a glimpse of their attacker, raising both hands to the sky Caldazar waited for Tommy to acquire a lock. In a few seconds they had a lock, but just as they were about to fire, the illusion faltered, causing both Tommy and Caldazar to see Ellisande flying, jerking his hands away in shock Cladazar broke the target lock, and when the rockets were fired they went wild and ended up crashing into some of the buildings of the city. Seconds later the illusion was back into place, causing both Tommy and Caldazar to back up in confusion.

As this was going on Kimberly was talking to the other rangers. "Guys this is not working. We aren't skilled enough with our zords to beat Tommy like this. We need the Megazord. If we keep going like this, then we are going to lose."

"I understand what you're saying, but right now I don't think we can even form the Megazord." Trini replied. "Lin's badly hurt. I'm feeding power into her to speed her recovery, but it's going to take some time."

"Zordon, we need some help." Jason called out to their mentor and leader.

"I am sending you all some of my power, but it will last for only five minutes, so use it well." Zordon said as he sent five beams of bluish-white energy towards each of the zords.

As the zords glowed with the extra energy, all the damage had been repaired, and all the systems had been supercharged. As a one they had all decided to form the Megazord, in order to be on an even playing field. In seconds the giant zord had finished assembling and was ready to fight the dragon. Not playing around the team summoned both the Power Sword and Mastodon Shield.

With both weapons ready the giant zord charged at Caldazar, who at that point was clutching his head in confusion. But the dragon's momentarily peace was quickly shattered as the Megazord charged and slashed the dragon across the chest. Roaring in pain both Tommy and Caldazar forgot about the strange images and focused on the 'Regin' attacking them.

As the Megazord brought up its sword in preparation for another attack, Caldazar pivoted out of the slash's path and brought his drill tipped tail around, only for the Mastodon shield to intercept the deadly drill. Pushing the drill aside the Megazord brought the Power Sword around for a slash at Caldazar's back, only for the dragon to drop to its hands and knees, from where he snapped a kick out at the giant zord's feet, sending the Megazord stumbling back. As Caldazar regained his feet and turned to face the Megazord, he brought up his hands, and unleashed ten rockets towards the giant zord.

Inside the Megazord alarms blared as warnings to the incoming rockets. Acting on instinct alone Jason brought up the shield in time to catch four of the ten rockets. Three other rockets hit the Megazord's legs, while the remaining rockets missed and ended up detonating on the road. With the danger of the missiles over Jason sent the Megazord rushing at Caldazr, with the Power Sword pulled back ready to skewer the green dragon. But as the giant zord closed with Caldazar, the red dots on his chest again flashed, with no time to stop the Megazord ran full tilt into the dragon's green shield only to rebound and land on its side.

As the rangers looked out of the cockpit they noticed Caldazar approaching them. Regaining their feet the rangers stepped forward to meet the dragon. Caldazar went in for a slash only for his claws to be stopped by the Mastodon shield, as the dragon slashed at the Megazord, the giant zord, unable to employ the sword in such close quarters, resorted to slamming the dragon with a kick to the side, sending the great zord stumbling away.

With the distance now opened Jason took the chance to feed nearly all the extra power from Zordon into the Power Sword, causing the blade to glow with a bright silver light. Seizing the opportunity Jason slashed at Caldazar, sending a large arc of silver energy at the dragon. As Caldazar clambered to his feet, both he and Tommy had only an instant to deploy a shield. A hasty green shield was put up, but with so little time and having been taken by surprise at the new attack, the shield was weak. The effect was that Caldazar was sent flying through the air landing outside of the city near an abandoned quarry.

"Alright we got him! Now all that's left is to take out the Green Ranger." Jason said as he leapt from the Megazord and into quarry, leaving his teammates nervous and worried for his safety.

As Kimberly watched her brother figure leap away, her nerves and fears rocketed upwards as she realized that Jason was planning on fighting Tommy to the death. Ellisande tried to sooth the girl, but she knew that at the moment, both of their mates were in trouble, if not from the rangers, then from the Sword of Darkness. "Please stay safe." Kimberly whispered as she prayed for Tommy.

As Tommy climbed out of the cockpit he stood on top of his friend. Looking down at Cladazar he smiled sadly, silently promising to make 'Regin' pay for the damage that he had done. Hearing footsteps nearby he realized that 'Regin' was ready to fight once more. Growling to himself Tommy teleported away in a flash of green lightning. When he reappeared in a quarry he noticed that 'Regin' was already there and had drawn a long sword and what looked like one of the ranger's Blade Blasters.

Jason by now was fairly used to how Tommy teleported, but when he arrived at the quarry, the green lightning didn't stay in close to the Green Ranger's body like it normally did, rather the lightning seemed to explode out from its master, striking rocks and scorching the ground everywhere in a ten foot radius. Jason gulped as he saw that Tommy's eyes were once again shining through his visor, more terrifying than anything he has ever seen, but as Tommy pointed out the other day, he had found his courage, and he wasn't about to cower in front of Tommy, especially considering all the harm that had befallen Trini at his hands.

But all thoughts of revenge and justice flew out of Jason's head when Tommy spoke. "You're going to pay for what you've done to Caldazar, Regin. I'll make you regret ever meeting either of us."

Jason played the words through his mind, and one question came up. "_Who's Regin?_" While he was curious, the memories of Trini shrieking in pain brought back his anger. "I don't know who you're talking about, but I will make sure you are punished for what you have done to Trini." Jason growled out as he flourished his blades.

Tommy in response summoned his Dragon Dagger to his right hand in a flash of green lightning, while the Sword of Darkness appeared in burst of black lightning in his left. "I'm not playing games Regin." Tommy called out.

"Jason." Zordon called over the radio. "You must not kill Tommy, he is not himself. He is being controlled by an evil spell. If you destroy the Sword of Darkness, then you should remove the spell."

"But Zordon, how can you be sure that he isn't doing any of this of his own volition. I mean, he nearly killed Trini, Zack, and me."

"Jason I am aware of all of this, but I am one of the most powerful wizards to have ever existed, and as such I am able to detect spells, and I know for a fact that Tommy is being controlled."

Jason sighed, but despite his own opinions and reasons, he knew that Zordon would never lie about something like this. Nodding his head in assent, he stepped forward to fight, ready to fight to the death if need be. Not noticing that the other rangers, and their zords, each having separated, stood around the rim of the quarry watching and waiting for the battle.

As soon as Jason moved, Tommy immediately raised his blades and charged an orb of green energy. Jason paled slightly, and in the second that the orb was being created Jason noticed how much darker it was that the last time Tommy used that attack. Quickly bringing his blades up to guard against the attack Jason braced himself only to be shocked as Tommy sent the orb racing for his feet. When the orb impacted on the ground the energy exploded sending Jason tumbling away.

As Jason climbed to his feet he noticed that Tommy had leaped from his earlier spot on the quarry and was rapidly descending with his dagger glowing bright green. Backing up quickly Jason whipped his sword upward connecting blades with Tommy, causing all the energy in the dagger to explode outwards. Cringing from the energy Jason began his attack using his longer Power Sword to keep Tommy at a distance, like he did earlier. But that tactic was less than useless now that Tommy had two weapons. In mere seconds Tommy diverted Jason's Power Sword into the earth and began to tear him apart with his Dragon Dagger. In desperation Jason lashed out with his Blade Blaster, and while he didn't hit Tommy, he did cause him to back up.

At that moment, Jason figured that it was useless playing defense, so he charged Tommy, knowing full well that he would not get out of the fight unscathed, but he intended to do as much damage as possible. Tommy sidestepped Jason's first slash before retaliating with a slash of his own, only for Jason to parry the blow with his Blade Blaster. Jason then swept at Tommy's legs with the Power Sword, and although Tommy leapt back, he wasn't quick enough to avoid the blade entirely and ended up getting nicked across the shin.

As Tommy stumbled on his landing Jason surged forward taking advantage of the Green Ranger's momentary weakness. Once Jason was in range he unleashed a series of slashes with his Power Sword. The first slash connected solidly across his chest causing Tommy to back peddle in an attempt to move away from Jason's sword. But Jason would have none of that and so he kept the pressure on. But with each slash he sent, Tommy was blocking better, and quickly managed to regain his footing.

With his balance recovered Tommy shifted seamlessly from defense and into attack. He did this by trapping Jason's sword with his own sword, and moving in close he blocked Jason's Blade Blaster with his dagger, and with both blades locked Tommy sent a knee to Jason's chest, causing the Red Ranger to stumble back in pain. But before Jason could get too far away Tommy snapped out his leg catching Jason in the ribs and sending him skidding across the dirt.

Getting to his feet Jason looked up only to watch as Tommy charged the Sword of Darkness, causing the evil blade to glow blacker than he had ever seen. Before he had a chance to switch his Blade Blaster to gun mode he was suddenly hit by a wave of black energy, from where Tommy thrust the evil sword into the ground. Falling to his knees in pain Jason gritted his teeth, but nonetheless regained his feet and after switching his Blade Blaster into its pistol form he aimed at the calmly approaching Green Ranger.

As Tommy walked towards Jason, he raised the Dragon Dagger to his lips and played another song on the instrument, causing the Dragon Shield to glow green briefly. Jason after getting a lock on Tommy opened fire, only to have his own shot ricochet back at him. Narrowly dodging his own laser, Jason opened fire again, with more shots, only to have them all reflect back at him, two of which actually hit his body, sending him into a roll.

As Jason came out of his roll, he clambered to his feet, only to have to dive to the side to avoid being decapitated by the Sword of Darkness. Scrambling to his feet Jason charged Tommy, with his sword raised high, glowing a bright red. As their blades clashed again, neither moved a muscle, both of them deciding to try and finish the fight here. Faster and faster the swords and knives clashed, and in seconds the superior blade master became clear. For while Jason had the longer sword, and thus greater reach, Tommy had in general faster reflexes, and coupled with his shorter sword and wicked fast dagger, he was easily able to ward off all of Jason's attacks. The duel was quickly ended when Tommy sidestepped a slash from Jason and entered his guard, from there Jason was quickly caught between Tommy's two blades, as Tommy slashed Jason simultaneously with both sword and dagger, sending the Red Ranger to the ground.

As Jason climbed to his feet he infused his sword with both his and Ithai's energy, causing the blade to glow a bright angry red. Once on his feet Jason took aim and with a quick yet powerful throw, Jason threw his sword at Tommy. Seeing the brightly glowing blade coming his way, Tommy shifted to the side so that the sword would miss him, but he failed to move the Sword of Darkness, instead opting to deflect the Power Sword with his own. It was this decision that would help to free him; but would also be more deadly than anyone ever imagined.

The effect was simple, the Sword of Darkness flew from Tommy's hand and onto the quarry floor from its impact with Jason's energized Power Sword. And while this typically wouldn't be much of an accomplishment, since Tommy could easily re-summon his weapons, but when the sword left his grasp the illusion that Regin had placed on him and Caldazar was lifted, allowing Tommy to finally clearly see what was going on around him. All the rangers watched as Tommy tensed up as he looked around and studied his surroundings before he caught sight of his sword.

As he walked towards his sword he spoke. "I thank you Jason, for freeing me from Regin's illusion. And for your assistance I will give you and your team a month to prepare before we fight again. Now if you will excuse me, Caldazar and I have a traitor to destroy." Tommy said, before lifting his Dragon Dagger to his lips and playing the song that summoned Caldazar from the ocean earlier that day.

Kimberly and the other rangers were shocked by the complete 180 that Tommy just pulled. But when they noticed Caldazar pick himself up and lumber over to the quarry they became nervous. Although Kimberly became even more nervous as she got a bad feeling about what was going to happen. Having learned to listen to her gut she started to run into the quarry trying to reach Tommy.

As Tommy neared the Sword of Darkness he placed his dagger in the black sheath hanging at his hip, before raising his hands up. Above his hands a large orb of energy of both green and white energy formed above him, the orb was approximately four feet in diameter when it was completed. Above the quarry Caldazar armed a rocket and locked onto the Sword of Darkness. At some unknown signal, both Tommy and Caldazar launched their attacks at the evil sword. As one both attacks hit the evil blade erupting in an explosion that sent shockwaves through the quarry, destroying the Sword of Darkness, except for a shard or two.

As the dust cleared Tommy heaved a sigh of relief upon seeing the sword destroyed. That was until he heard what he would later describe as a lock turning in his head; at that point he was assaulted by a lifetime of memories. Falling to his knees Tommy clutched his head as he shrieked in pain. To Kimberly it was one of the worst moments of her life; as she watched the man she was coming to love, scream in absolute and utter pain. It only got worse as seconds later his morph fell and Kimberly saw the pain on his face. Fearing for her future mate she called out to him. "Tommy!"

Painstakingly the green and white clad boy raised his head and looked at her, and mouthed her name before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed into a heap. Screaming in panic Kimberly raced even faster to his side, reaching him before everyone else. Once she had reached him she picked up his head and placed it on her lap, demorphing as she did so. Stroking his hair she turned her attention to Ellisande and Caldazar, who had since moved together. As the other rangers approached Caldazar leaned down and motioned for Kimberly to place the boy in his hand. After glancing to Ellisande for confirmation, to which the pink Pterodactyl nodded, Kim, with effort, moved Tommy until he was lying on Caldazar's outstretched hand. With Tommy in hand, Caldazar stood and after placing his ranger near his chest a flash of green light appeared, transporting Tommy back into Caldazar's cockpit. With his ranger safe inside Caldazar turned around and started walk back to the harbor, but not before sending a fond and loving look at Ellisande.

At that time the other rangers had finally arrived. Jason and Trini approached their pink friend and gave her a hug, knowing that she needed it. As Jason watched Caldazar walk away, he knew that something, either for better or worse had happened, and there was no changing it.

**That is the end of my sixth chapter and one of my longest. I actually wanted to write a little bit of the aftermath after this incident, but this is too good of a stopping point. **

**1) This is an influence of their Ninjetti spirits, the Crane and Falcon respectively. **

**2) Yes this is Caldazar. I have decided to model Caldazar's true form on that of the classic European style dragon, my favorite. But let it be known that this is what Caldazar, originally looked like, before he became the Dragonzord, and gained a Godzilla like form. So if and when Caldazar ever regains his original form he will revert to this. **

**3) I know that the Dragonzord has red eyes, but remember this is my story, so I am taking creative license. Also this is an AU, so it is fine that Caldazar has green eyes instead of red.**

**Hope you enjoyed. Tell me what you think about the fight scenes, the plot, the characters. Please send in substantial reviews, I worked hard on this chapter, and am particularly proud of the fight scenes as well as the suspense and drama, so please write me some substantial reviews. In essence review please.**


	7. Taste of Freedom

Ch 7

**Here is the next chapter in the Question of Loyalty. This chapter is very key, and will deal with a lot of the fallout that came about from what happened in the last chapter. I hope you enjoy, there will be a fight scene, but it won't be as massive as the ones in the last chapter. Well it shouldn't be. **

**Note: I do not own Power Rangers. **

**Important heads up, the chapter starts off with a nightmare/vision, just don't want you to get confused. Enjoy the chapter. **

**I would like to thank PokemonKnight, xBeLLeGrEyx, red lighting, Young at Heart21, brakel1, Ghostwriter, oldtvlover, Vodams, MugglebornGleek4life, Yob3, IHeartQuidditch, CeeCee01, and pinkcheer for their reviews, particularly the long ones for my last chapter.**

-One Week Later-

Opening her eyes Kimberly found herself standing on the rim of a volcano. Startled at where she was standing Kimberly quickly backed away from the edge of the fiery mountain. Once she was no longer in danger of falling into the active volcano, Kim began to look around the volcanic island that she mysteriously found herself on.

The island that she was on seemed to be quite unique. At the center of the island was a large marsh, with a nice large raised area that stood in the middle of the wetlands. Lying in the center of the raised area was large nest, and resting in the nest was a beautiful bright pink female crane. Looking at the pink bird Kimberly felt a deep connection with the animal, but nonetheless she dragged her attention away from the bird. At the southern end of the marsh stood a nice grove of trees that ran all the way to the southern end of the island, which ended with a wall of sheer cliffs that had a large cave dug into the sheer walls. At the north end of the island stood the volcano, which was easily the highest place on the island that sloped easily and gently into the waters of the sea.

But while the island she was on was beautiful and enchanting, her attention was drawn to an island that she saw in the distance. The island, while too far away to make out a lot of details, clearly held a large tall white mountain. But every other detail of the island was obscured by both the distance between the two islands, as well as the giant storm that seemed to be attacking the distant island.

As she stared at the island, Kimberly felt her worry and fear for Tommy suddenly skyrocket, although for what reason, she could not be sure. After a few minutes of staring at the island Kimberly saw a window form in the sky. Gazing upwards Kim saw that it was rimmed in pink. But all thoughts of how and why the strange window appeared were dashed from the Pink Ranger's mind as she caught sight of what was shown.

The image shown in the window was dark, there seemed to no light at all, except for the white stone, that seemed to glow with a fierce white light, and lying face up on the stone was Tommy. Long slender knives were stuck into his feet and wrists anchoring him to the white stone. His clothes were ripped and torn, probably from other knives, showing the skin underneath red with his life's blood. A raging storm surrounded him, with heavy rain and lightning adding to the light provided by the white stone. He looked as though he was being sacrificed.

She gasped in horror as she saw another knife form in midair, as though the storm raging around him was crafting the cruel instrument. Kimberly watched as Tommy's green eyes flashed open and tracked the knife as it descended towards him. But before the knife could reach him, a green scaled tail came and smashed the knife away. The rest of the green scaled body came forward and Kimberly saw that it was a large green dragon, who she assumed to be Cladazar.

As the dragon lumbered towards his friend and partner; Kimberly noticed that the dragon itself seemed to be tired and injured. While she could see no blood, she did notice many discolored scales decorating the dragon's body, Kimberly assumed that Caldazar was suffering from many bruises. As Kimberly stared out at the window, she failed to notice that Ellisande had taken flight from the volcano and had joined her ranger in staring at the strange window.

As the two gazed at the window they saw Caldazar move from Tommy to an indent in the white stone. Pressing a clawed hand to the indent Cladazar pushed his weight down, cracking the stone releasing a wave of pink energy. Kimberly and Ellisande watched entranced as their energy rushed out and into Tommy and Caldazar.

But before Kim and Ellisande could see what would happen, Kimberly heard a rushing sound, and seconds later she found herself bolting out of her bed in a cold sweat. Glancing around her familiar room Kimberly let out a shuddering breath as she released some of the tension that had built from the intense dream.

Getting up, Kimberly started on her morning routine wondering on the possibility of seeing Tommy today. Once she had finished getting dressed, and doing her hair she grabbed her breakfast and hurried outside to meet up with her friends. As she stood at the curb of her street waiting for Trini and Jason to show she thought back to all that had happened in the last week.

First of all, and most important to her, was that Tommy had not been seen or heard of since he had collapsed in the quarry after he had destroyed the Sword of Darkness. And needless to say this worried her immensely. When she asked Ellisande if she knew anything, the Pterodactyl had told her that Caldazar had been unresponsive the whole week as well, leaving both of them feeling very nervous about the situation.

Adding to the stress of the situation was everyone's opinion on the Green Ranger. The vast majority of the city both hated and feared the Green Ranger. Not only had Tommy directly threatened the civilians, but he had also caused more damage to the city itself than all the other monster attacks combined. The damage was so extensive, that it was likely to take several months to fully repair everything. But as much as the city hated the Green Ranger, they feared him more. For not only did he destroy much of their beloved city, but he also fought and won against the Power Rangers, and in the last battle the collateral damage was so much that the rangers victory was small a comfort, considering the fact that after the battle Caldazar had walked calmly through the city and back into the harbor.

And while Kimberly could understand the civilians fear and anger at Tommy, she was appalled at her friends continued suspicion of Tommy, for they were there when he destroyed the sword, and they saw the anguish that resulted from his action. And if they doubted their eyes, then Zordon's assurance that Tommy was under an evil spell, and that said spell was broken should be more than enough to dispel any of their remaining doubts. But it seemed that it was either going to be a long time before her friends trusted Tommy again, or it would take something big on Tommy's part to earn their trust again.

Kimberly sighed as she considered how big of a mess the entire situation was, and she was sure that she only had part of the picture. But before she could continue her thoughts on the situation she heard Trini call out to her.

Turning around Kim saw Jason and Trini walking towards her hand in hand, although when they saw her knowing smile they quickly dropped each others' hand and blushed brightly. Sighing at her two friends' embarrassment Kimberly picked up her bag and joined her friends on their walk to school.

The walk to school was quiet, with Kimberly consumed in her thoughts about Tommy, while her friends were worried about her. For in the week that had passed since they had last seen Tommy, Jason and Trini noticed a general depression and weariness about the Pink Ranger. Simply put Kimberly was heartsick over Tommy. And while a week earlier they would have been glad and excited for their friend having finally found someone to cast her affections on, now they were very cautious of Tommy considering all the damage he had done. Because despite what Zordon said, they couldn't make themselves fully trust Tommy despite the fact that he was under some kind of spell. Consumed by their thoughts the three friends quickly reached the school, only to see the very last person that they expected to see on the steps waiting for them. Tommy Oliver.

Several things happened once Kimberly, Jason, and Trini saw the Green Ranger. First of all, the three rangers stared in shock at Tommy. The second was that a bright smile covered Kimberly's face causing Tommy to smile in turn at the petite Pink Ranger. And moments later Kimberly dashed away from her friends and wrapped Tommy in a hug, causing him to blush as he wrapped his arms around her. But as Tommy looked at Jason and Trini, he saw their eyes darken with suspicion and anger. Seeing the ranger's suspicion and anger Tommy knew that things were tense, and would be even more so if they knew everything that had happened to him.

When Billy and Zack arrived at the school's steps and saw Tommy and Kimberly arm in arm, they too showed their suspicion towards the Green Ranger. Upon seeing most of the Power Rangers glaring at him with suspicion, Tommy released Kim and stepped towards the rangers with Kimberly keeping pace beside him. Once all six rangers got close enough to keep their conversation private, Tommy started to explain some of what had happened.

"Look, I know you don't trust me, but I also know that you have questions that you want answered. But there are some things that I want to keep to myself for now." Tommy said getting reluctant nods from Jason, Trini, Zack, and Billy, happy at least that Tommy was willing to explain a little, while Kimberly reached out and grabbed his hand and gave it a warm squeeze. "Now to ease your mind, I will stand by what I said earlier and not attack you for a month."

Jason seeing an opportunity to make an ally out of their greatest enemy decided to make an offer. "Hey Tommy, why not join our team? Caldazar would gain a Megazord mode, you would be able to train with us to get stronger, and we can make sure that Rita never controls you again."

Tommy shook his head no. "Look while I appreciate the offer and the assistance, I cannot join your team, I have a lot more going on than you think I do."

Zack shook his head in exasperation. "Look dude, I know that you are the new kid at school, but this is about a little more than your insecurities about being the new guy. This is about the battle between good and evil. With you on our side we can easily defeat Rita and seal her back up for good."

Tommy felt his control over his illusion slipping at Zack's casual threat against his mother. And as he glared at Zack the illusion around his eyes shimmered, causing Zack and the others to get a blurry look at Tommy's piecing green eyes. Zack stepped back in slight fear at the glimpse of green in Tommy's eyes. "Look, while it may not seem like it, my life is a lot more complex than what it looks like. I am not joining anyone's team right now. Right now all I want to do is rest, and regain my balance." Tommy said before he walked into the high school.

Kimberly glared at her friends, annoyed that they would try to force the issue not even five minutes after they see him again. "Look, I know that having Tommy on our team will make us much stronger." Kimberly began. "But I don't think that it's smart to force the issue about his joining any team. Guys he was under an evil spell! We don'teven know the lasting effects of the spell. I think that the best thing that we can do is to be there for him. You need to forget about what he did to us while under the spell and be his friend again." And with that Kimberly walked away from her friends to catch up to Tommy.

Now that they thought about it Jason, Trini, Zack, and Billy were ashamed of their lingering anger and hate towards Tommy. For while it was obvious that he remembered at least some of what he had done (1), he was clearly dealing with a lot of demons, and their earlier behavior clearly wasn't helping him with whatever he was going through.

Back in the school Kimberly had caught back up with Tommy. "Hey, I'm sorry about that back there, they were out of line."

Tommy sighed and reached for Kimberly's hand and gave it a tender squeeze. "They weren't actually. If I was in their position, I would probably have done much of the same. But I seriously doubt that they would be having the issues that I am having."

"Like what?"

Tommy looked at the pink clad girl that was making her way steadily deeper into his heart, and debated whether or not to tell her his problems. But upon seeing her desire to help him he gave in. "All right, I'll tell you, but not now. I'll tell you after school's over."

Kimberly nodded and smiled up at him. "Oh yeah I need to tell you the story I made to excuse you for your absence." Tommy looked to Kimberly with a questioning look on his face. "I knew that you would forget about school while you were gone, so I concocted a story that would fit well."

"What is it?"

"Nearly the truth. I told them that on the day that Caldazar appeared we were taking a walk down by the harbor, and during the chaos some debris fell and hit you on the head knocking you into a coma." Kimberly looked down at the ground as she thought about her dream last night. "Everyone bought it, so you might get a few well-wishers." Kim said trying to get rid of the images that she saw in her dream.

Tommy sensing her distress gave her hand a squeeze. "I have a lot to thank you for Kimberly. More than you know." Kimberly turned to Tommy and gave him a bright smile. "Now let's hurry, we don't want to be late for class."

-Later After School-

The rest of the school day passed fairly swiftly for the rangers, with Tommy being congratulated on his quick recovery, and the other rangers coming up and apologizing for their actions earlier. So once school was over Tommy led Kimberly towards Angel Grove's middle school.

"So tell me why we are heading to the middle school?" Kimberly asked.

"I'm about to introduce you to some people." Tommy replied as he led Kimberly over to a bench outside the middle school. As the two waited for the school to dismiss, they took the opportunity to enjoy the peace of each other's presence. After only five minutes of waiting the school bell rang and let out the kids. When the bell rang Tommy stood from the bench and was watching the door. After a few minutes of kids pouring through the doors, he spotted the people that he was looking for. "Alex! Brandon! Over here!"

Tommy and Kimberly watched as two kids about twelve years old made their way through the crowd and to the two teens. "Hey Tommy! Long time no see. We were thinking that we wouldn't see you again, seeing as you got adopted." Alex, the boy with short cropped brown hair and a red hat exclaimed, excited to see his former roommate, Brandon dressed in a blue hoodie simply gave a nod to the older boy and the girl standing next to him.

Kimberly quickly put the pieces together as Tommy and the two boys chatted, for even though he was only at Angel Grove's orphanage for a few days he still became a friend to the young orphans.

"So Tommy, can you tell us who the girl is?" Brandon asked, drawing attention to Kimberly.

"Oh right, guys this is Kimberly Ann Hart, she's been helping me get adjusted to the city. Anyway I just wanted to stop by and say hi before we go on a walk through the city." Tommy said to the two boys.

Alex and Brandon looked at each other with sly grins before turning back to face their old roommate. "Man Tommy, you're sure lucky. Not even here for a two weeks and you've been adopted, and apparently you have a girlfriend." Alex said, causing a light blush to appear on both teens faces.

"Alright that's enough, you can embarrass me later." Tommy said with a chuckle. "I'll try to visit you guys over the weekend."

"Alright, we'll see you this weekend." Alex said as he and Brandon began their walk towards the buses. With a wave of goodbyes the two boys left the teenagers alone.

Once the kids had left Kimberly turned towards Tommy and gave him a soft look "So these are the 'brothers' that you were talking about earlier." Tommy nodded in confirmation. "Well I understand that being an orphan can be a bit embarrassing, but they said that you were adopted."

Glancing around Tommy led Kimberly back to the bench, and once they were seated he mumbled a spell under his breath, causing his hands to flash green, guaranteeing that no one would overhear their conversation. Looking at Kimberly he knew that he had only created more questions to answer by casting that spell.

"All right, well I know that I have a lot to explain, and it's kind of convoluted, so I think I will start at the beginning, and answer any questions along the way." Kimberly nodded knowing that he had a lot that he needed to get off his chest. "Well as you know, I am an orphan, have been for all my life. Apparently I was left at the doors of an orphanage when I was a baby, along with some papers that had my important information, you know, name, blood type and such. Well I've been in the orphanage system since then, moving to different cities every couple of years, due to various reasons, the least of which was me getting into fights with other kids." At seeing Kimberly's raised eyebrow he hastened to explain. "I don't mean that I went out and looked for fights, most of the time I was just protecting my fellow orphans from bullies. The other times it was when the bullies came after me for revenge. I've never stayed in an orphanage for more than a year or two, before being moved to another place. It was rough, the only time I was glad to have been moved, was when I lived in Briarwood, I've never been so glad to get away from some place."

"What happened exactly?"

"Weird stuff, but that's a story for another time. So I moved from place to place until about a year ago, when I started to get these weird dreams. At first they weren't too bad, but as time passed by I realized them for what they were, a type of mental attack. I only learned recently that it was Rita's attempt at brainwashing me. But wh-"

"Hold on. You're saying that Rita, queen of evil was trying to brainwash you for over a year. Why?" Kimberly asked, extremely perplexed at why the evil witch would attempt to brainwash Tommy of all people.

"I know, mind boggling, but that answer is coming soon so just be patient. Anyway so when I came here I was beyond mentally drained and as I'm sure you saw in tournament I was acting on muscle memory alone in some cases. But when we shook hands at school I felt my mind and body become completely rejuvenated at your touch. That was my last day in ignorance." Kimberly looked slightly puzzled at this but kept quiet; sure that everything would become clear in time. "After you guys left me at the Youth Center to go fight whatever monster that was attacking I made my way back to the orphanage, I took a shortcut through an ally only to be ambushed by five putties, I defeated them, but then about thirty more were sent, after a while Goldar came down and joined in and captured me. Apparently I was brought to the Lunar Palace and over a week I was brainwashed by Rita and her husband Zedd."

Kimberly's eyes went wide in horror at the thought of the boy in front of her having his entire life altered by the evil witch. "So they brainwashed you to be there servant over the week and I guess that since we haven't seen this Zedd then he must have gone away to conquer something. But wait, surely the orphanage would have noticed you were missing for a week."

"You're right about Zedd, but they didn't brainwash me and make me into a servant. They made me their son, not only in my memories and actions, but also legally, Rita and Zedd adopted me." At this Kimberly gasped and grabbed Tommy's hand. "They gave me memories of living in the space prison with them. In those memories I grew up with a mother and father. And while they were evil, they were good parents." Tommy said with a distant voice. Kimberly was beginning to get a grasp of how convoluted his life was.

"Once the brainwashing was complete they gave me the Dragon coin, allowing me to fully bond with Caldazar, which in turn signaled for Ellisande to bond with you, causing you to get a pink Pterodactyl 'tatoo', while my eyes changed to a bright green. Everything was going according to her plan, but when mo- Rita saw how I didn't finish you guys off when I had the chance, things began to change to get more complicated and dangerous. If you're wondering why I spared you guys, it was because Caldazar roared a warning stopping me from making the biggest mistake of my life. Rita realized that you and Cladazar were helping to bring back my original memories, and in time the brainwashing would have faded and I would have regained my memories easily and painlessly; so Rita decided to give me the Sword of Darkness to try to block out both you and Caldazar's influence."

"So that's why after you got the sword you were acting so much more aggressive and violent. Ellisande and I were right." Kimberly exclaimed receiving a nod of confirmation from Tommy.

"Yeah, well the sword was a lot more evil than you would think. It nearly had me destroy my memories, which would have made me Regin's slave." Kimberly raised an eyebrow at the name, remembering that Tommy had called Jason that when they last fought. Tommy catching her line of thought explained. "Yeah, the Sword of Darkness, was actually sentient. His name is Regin, and he was completely insane and twisted. So Regin was blocking my original memories from me, but he couldn't stop your influence, you were slowly but surely releasing my memories. Although Regin was supposed to stop my original memories, he also was blocking out Cladazar, I had to make a huge effort to contact Cladazar, and anchor the Dragon Dagger within myself." With a flourish of his hand Tommy summoned the green dagger to his hand with a brief flash of green light, after he showed it to Kimberly he dismissed the dagger in a flurry of green lightning.

"Wait a minute, how can you do that? And how do you morph without a morpher?"

"The lightning and fire?" Kim nodded. "Well … I can do magic, and my connection to Caldazar obviously has an effect on my magic, as seen with my emerald lightning. Although I'm not entirely sure why my fire is white, it might have to do with the falcon, I've tried but I can't make it change color, same with my lightning it will stay green no matter what.(2) But yeah I can do magic because of my parents. As for morphing, well it's because I'm fully bonded with my ranger powers. You could probably do the same if you practiced. Anyway the day that we went to the harbor I was pulled into my mind by Cladazar and Regin. The closer that we got to the water the louder Caldazar roared. You see he wanted me to summon him, so that he might help me overcome Regin's influence and so that I could become myself again. But when I was drawn into my mind, it was like nothing I've ever seen." Tommy said with a bit of awe in his voice. "I was standing on this island with a giant white mountain, with a forest surrounding the base of it, and a large bay with a cave near the water. Apparently Caldazar lived in the cave, and on the mountain in a nest next to me was a pure white male falcon, fast asleep."

Kimberly gained a thoughtful look in her eye as she recalled her dream again and realized that the island that she saw in the distance was probably the place Tommy was describing. And if he was describing that island as his mind, then the island she was on in her dream was most likely her mind as well. The thought of their minds being so close was intriguing to say the least.

"Well when I was in my mind Regin appeared from this wall of black energy after which he and Caldazar each tried to convince me to choose their way of dealing with my memories, whosever way that I chose they would get to stay while the other had to leave. Caldazar wanted me to regain them and become myself again, while Regin wanted me to destroy them. At the time I was leaning more towards Regin's plan, because during our walk I got some of my memories back, but it wasn't pleasant. I had two completely different sets of memories that were contradicting each other and it was throwing my mind into chaos. I very nearly took Regin up on his offer, but Caldazar warned me of the consequences that would come if I did, and needless to say the risks of what I saw were far too great for me to agree with Regin's plan. So I made my choice and chose Caldazar and his loyalty and strength over Regin's power. But Regin wasn't too pleased. Once I had summoned Caldazar, Regin cast an illusion on us causing both Caldazar and myself to see him in everything. He could make a building take on his appearance, which was why we caused so much damage to the city. You see I didn't want to fight you guys that day, that day my fight was with Regin, all the time I was fighting you guys I thought that I was fighting Regin, but luckily Caldazar and I were strong enough that the illusion broke from time to time. When Jason knocked the Sword of Darkness from my hand I was broken free from the illusion. But when Caldazar and I destroyed the Sword of Darkness, Regin made sure that I wouldn't escape unscarred. He unleashed all of my memories at once which sent me into a coma."

"I was out for a week, but I was completely aware of what was going on in my mind. You see with two different lifetimes of memories clashing and warring for dominance; my mind was literally being torn into shreds. I was going insane. The only things that kept from losing my mind were: Caldazar, the white falcon, and you."

"Me?" Kimberly asked in surprise.

"Yeah, in more ways than one, you see you poured energy into me which helped to keep my mind together, as well as wake me up. And my memories of you were one of the few things that were not contested by both sets of memories. I was fighting for my sanity during this past week. While I did come through the storm it will take some time for me to regain my balance."

Kimberly looked at him with soft eyes, feeling sorry that he went through so much pain and how screwed up his life has become. "So where are you going to live? You can't go back to the orphanage, because Rita and Zedd adopted you. I guess you can spend the night a few nights a week at my house, although I'll have to run it by with my mom I'm sure that she'll agree."

Tommy spared Kim a warm smile before he continued. "Kim, I'm not finished." Kimberly blushed before she nodded for Tommy to continue. "When Regin and Caldazar were arguing about me, Caldazar let slip my parents names. My mom's name is Leanna, and my dad's is Alric." Kimberly quirked an eyebrow at hearing the unusual names, but nonetheless remained silent. "Anyway Regin made a point that my energy is similar to that of Rita and Zedd, so much so that he could tell that I was their son." Kimberly nodded solemnly, having somehow expected something like this. "But Caldazar told me that they were somehow being possessed. It's another reason why I don't want to choose sides." Tommy said as he withdrew himself into his thoughts.

Kimberly gave Tommy's hand a squeeze bringing him back to the present. "Look, I don't know what you should choose. And I won't force your choice. But I think that you should be more worried about immediate concerns. Such as where are you going to sleep?"

Tommy shrugged. "Well I was planning on sleeping in Caldazar's cockpit until I regain my mental balance, and once I do, I plan on going to my dimension."

"Your dimension?"

"Yeah once mom and dad had finished brainwashing me, they gave me my own dimension, it's the place where I sent Jason when I kidnapped him; I can control the entire space. It has an entire library full of spell books and more. And I can make it completely safe and secure so that only I can get in and out. Although I'm reluctant to go there until I completely recover; after all I don't really know how far my mom will go to get me back on her side."

Kimberly nodded thoughtfully. "Well I guess that you'll be staying with me until you regain your balance." Tommy looked at Kimberly in surprise. "Because I'm not going to let you sleep in a cockpit all night long, besides I'm sure Ellisande and Caldazar would like to spend some time together." Tommy reluctantly nodded in agreement. "By the way since you can do magic, you might want to try and come up with a way to return the zords back to their original form."

-Three Weeks Later Lunar Palace-

As Rita gazed down at her son helping the Pink Ranger build a stupid flower float she felt her anger rise at the sight of the Pink Ranger. It was all her fault that her son was lost.

Growling to herself, Rita reflected on the past three weeks and the change that had occurred in her son. During the first week after he had awoken from his coma Tommy spent most of his time with Kimberly, only partly because he needed to regain his mental balance. She had decided that she would allow him to recover before making any attempt to return him to her side.

Her chance had come when he had returned to his dimension. When her son had teleported back home, he had arrived only to find that his room was crawling with putties along with Goldar and Scoropina leading the effort to recapture her son. The fight carried on for hours, but her son eventually overcame the forces that she had sent, displaying how his skills had only increased since his mind was restored to normal. Once he had cleared out the dimension of all of her minions Tommy had re-established the wards around his dimension blocking her and all of her minions from gaining entry.

From then on Tommy had taken to sleeping and studying in his dimension. And while Rita was disappointed that Tommy had not returned and taken his place at her side as her son, she was proud that he was continuing to train not only, his magical and martial skills, but he also trained his mind. And while she couldn't be sure of the progress that he was making, she had a feeling that it would be far more dangerous to break into his mind this time, much less brainwash him.

As a mother and a witch she was extremely proud of her son's progress with his powers, she could only imagine how strong he would become in the years to come. He was likely to become the strongest warrior of his lifetime, and possibly beyond due to the fact that he could use both sides of magic. Although there was other aspects of her son that she definitely didn't approve of.

First of all she hated how her son was practically courting the Pink Ranger, not only was the Pink Ranger one of Zordon's soldiers, she also was the one responsible for tearing her son away from her. Although despite her own personal hatred towards the pink brat, Rita could feel that Leanna approved of the girl. Secondly, it seemed that despite the rough start Tommy had with the rangers, Jason the others had moved past that and became his friends again, and although she knew that the rangers hoped that Tommy would join their team, they were following Kimberly's advice and not pressuring him into joining their team. Their desire for her son to be on their team was most clear in her last two attacks on the city, and although the power pukes defeated her monsters, they did not have an easy time, and all the while Tommy stood on the sidelines gazing at the battle. It was one of the few times that she enjoyed watching the rangers after the battle, because they were all divided on how Tommy simply stood there and watched and never offered any aid. But eventually they calmed down and continued being Tommy's friends, hoping that he'll eventually stop sitting on the sidelines.

But soon her son would have to choose a side; hers or the enemy's. And the best way to begin would be by getting some vengeance on that irritating Pink Ranger.

-Youth Center-

Walking back into the Youth Center with their arms laden with more decorations for the float which Kimberly was in charge of designing, Tommy and Kimberly discussed where there friends were. Because in the last two weeks, during which the float began to be assembled, at least one of the other rangers would be helping out with the float, although neither of the two had a problem with the fact that they would have some alone time.

Jason and Trini were spending the day hanging out at the park together, taking it easy and enjoying each other's company. Everyone suspected that the two would start dating anytime now. Zack was flirting with Angela, and trying to convince her to go on a date with him. And although he was still shot down again and again, he could tell that she was not only enjoying the attention, but also starting to enjoy his company. Billy was at the Command Center, working on some kind of invention with Alpha helping him. And so with everyone else busy, that left just Tommy and Kimberly to work on the float, and while with just the two of them working was slower, it was infinitely more enjoyable and entertaining for both of them.

Once the two teens entered the building and made their way toward the float model they noticed that the entire building was empty except for Ernie. And he didn't stay too long. "Tommy! Kimberly!" Ernie called out. "Listen, I need to go out and pick up some supplies. My deliverer's truck broke down, so I need to go and pick them up myself. I need you two to look after the place for me. Here, take this." Ernie handed a key to Tommy. "That's a key for the place, lock up if you guys have to go out. I'll be back in about two hours."

Tommy and Kimberly shared a look and a smile before continuing on towards the float. Setting the decorations down Tommy took a step back to admire their work. The float was turning out well, it was designed for the world peace parade, and it implemented both large amounts of flowers as well as implementing the image of Trini's zord and two birds, a white falcon and a pink crane.

"Can you believe it Tommy? Once we add these last few flowers our float will be complete." Kimberly exclaimed with a smile lighting up her face. "Thanks for all your help. If it wasn't for you I would have never gotten done on time."

Tommy gave Kim a soft smile. "Glad to help. After all you have done so much for me. Now come on, once we finish this thing up, I'll take you out for supper." Tommy offered, causing Kimberly's cheeks to heat up.

"Alright."

But before they could begin finishing the float, two unwelcome guests came sauntering into the Youth Center. "Well well, look at what we have here Skull; two lovebirds, all alone playing with flowers." Bulk said.

"Yeah, what's the matter Tommy? Got the urge to play with sissy flowers? So much for the big bad martial arts champion." Skull mocked.

Kimberly sighed in exasperation. For while the two bullies had finally stopped pestering her for dates, and in general stopped bothering her at all, they had decided to make fun of Tommy at any and every turn, although the two were some of the biggest supporters for the advancement of her and Tommy's relationship, a thing which she found herself wanting.

Shaking his head at the two bullies' antics Tommy reached over the float and picked up a few flowers and their seeds. Turning to the two bullies Tommy began to toss the seeds up into the air. "You do know that if I ground up these seeds, and add the petals I would get a paralyzing agent that would leave your extremities numb for hours."

Bulk and Skull looked stunned, apparently they never thought of the uses of plants. "You really wouldn't do that to us would you Tommy?" Skull asked, unsure on whether or not he would paralyze them.

Smiling at the two Tommy tossed a seed at the two, and discreetly using his magic he transformed the seed into a flower. Struck dumb by the little magic trick Bulk caught the flower, but unfortunately he had forgotten about his allergies, and seconds later Bulk was sneezing his way out of the Youth Center dragging Skull with him leaving Tommy and Kimberly laughing at the pair's comedic exit.

Once her laughter had subsided down Kimberly turned her attention to Tommy. "You know, you need to stop performing magic so flippantly in front of those two."

Tommy turned his attention to the girl beside him. "Hey, those two probably just think I'm some kind of magician. And besides, I know that you prefer seeing my real eyes instead of the illusion that I'm forced to keep up."

Kimberly blushed at this, but regained her composure, only for their conversation to be interrupted by the appearance of putties.

-Lunar Palace-

As Rita watched the fight between her putties the two rangers carry on, she grinned wickedly as she saw the damage being done to the model float. After the putties had been defeated and the pink brat saw the damage done to her precious float, she broke down into tears in Tommy's arms.

Leaving her telescope Rita made her way towards Finster's workshop. "Finster!"

"Yes my queen." The white skinned monster creator answered.

"I need you to make me a monster that will ruin this world peace parade."

"Of course my lady, but do you have any specifications and preferences?" Finster asked.

Pausing in thought Rita pondered on what type of monster would be best to ruin the blasted Pink Ranger's day. After a moment of thought an evil grin spread across the possessed witch's face. "Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I want a monster that will make the city fear the parade, and what do all parades have in common?"

"A lot of people?" Finster guessed.

"No, that's not it. They have flowers."

"Ah I see where you're going your majesty. And I have just the monster." Finster said as he made his way to his monster books. "Ah here it is, the Flora Expectarosa, otherwise known as the Spit Flower. It is a creature that is largely plant based, and as such will be invulnerable to much of the Ranger's typical attacks. Its primary method of attack is launching energy draining flowers. Anything that the flowers land on will have its energy drained. It is a perfect monster for the circumstance."

Rita nodded in assent. "Well done Finster. This monster will be perfect. Now hurry up, I don't want the pink brat to recover her confidence. With any luck today will be the day that I finally break that loathsome Power Ranger."

Finster grinned to himself as he started to create the monster.

-Earth-

As Tommy held Kimberly in his arms trying to soothe the distraught girl, his mind was racing trying to come up with a way to make her feel better. He had a plan, but there was no way that he could accomplish it with Kimberly with him, he needed something to distract Kimberly.

"Hey guys, we heard that there was a putty attack. Is everyone okay?" Jason asked, as he burst through the doors with Trini, Billy, and Zack just behind him.

Tommy smirked as he saw the opportunity to put his plan into action. "Yeah we're fine, but unfortunately the putties smashed the float."

Trini quickly came and gave her best friend a hug. "I'm sorry Kim, but maybe we can fix it in time to turn it in."

Kimberly sniffed, trying to recover her composure, but it was hard to see something that you had put weeks of effort and thought into suddenly be destroyed before your eyes. "It's not possible, the deadline for turning the floats in was later today, and there's no way that we can fix it up in time."

Jason took a look at Tommy and could see the gears turning in his eyes, he had a plan what it was, Jason couldn't be sure, but he knew that whatever it was, it would cheer up his 'little sister'. "Hey Kim, why don't we all go take a walk at the park. It might make you feel better."

Trini sent a questioning glance at Jason, but when he subtly pointed towards Tommy, she caught onto what he was planning. "Yeah come on Kim, Jason and I were just about to have a picnic, why don't you come and join us." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Trini knew she made a mistake, as she saw how everyone gave her and Jason knowing smiles.

Kimberly put her troubles behind her for the moment and concentrated on her two oldest friends. As she and the other rangers interrogated the Red and Yellow Rangers about their true plans for the day, Tommy quietly teleported away to his dimension with the pieces of Kimberly's parade model. But not before he left Kimberly a note telling her that he would pick her up for dinner at 7:00 at her house. Needless to say, when Kimberly discovered the note, her day improved a bit.

-Tommy's Dimension-

Arriving in his dimension in a flash of crackling green lightning Tommy immediately willed a clear space where he could begin reconstruction of the ruined float. As Tommy looked at the littered pieces of the float he had to concede that the putties did an excellent job destroying it. The main body of the float was snapped into three pieces, all the flowers were ripped from their carefully chosen places, and worst of all the replica of Lin was completely broken. Miraculously, both the falcon and the crane escaped the destruction unharmed.

As Tommy stared at the destruction he sighed in annoyance. '_This is going to take forever to repair. And the deadline is in three hours. This is impossible to repair in time, unless I use some magic._' Grinning at his plan Tommy rolled up his sleeves and under his breath he mumbled spells that began to pull the main body of the float back together. Once the three pieces were once again one solid piece Tommy turned his attention towards the broken Saber Tooth Tiger, and with another whispered spell the broken decoration flashed green before it started to slowly repair itself. With the main issues finished or working themselves out Tommy began the tedious task of re-gluing all the flowers back into their positions.

Two hours later everything was once again back in its place. Wiping the sweat from his brow Tommy took a step back from the float and admired the finished product. As he finished his inspection of the float he let out a sigh of relief, glad to have finished the float in time. With the float finally completed Tommy teleported himself and the float back to Earth in a flash of green lightning. Arriving near the drop off point Tommy quickly made his way inside, where after a few minutes of paperwork and verification Tommy had safely delivered the float.

But it was when Tommy exited the building and made his way towards the park, that he got a bad feeling. It was as if he felt his heart being squeezed, and in the depths of his mind he heard the cry of a crane, and the answering call of a falcon. With a flash of insight he realized that Kimberly was in danger.

Quickly calling upon his magic Tommy searched for Kimberly's unique energy signature and within seconds he found it. Once he had locked onto the location of her energy signal Tommy made his way to an empty alley, and in a flash of green light originating from the coin hanging around his neck, Tommy morphed into the Green Ranger.

Seconds later Tommy arrived at the battlefield in a burst of green lightning and white fire. What he saw, would become the catalysis for one of the most brutal monster fights the world has ever seen. The Power Rangers were on the ground, unable to stand due to their energy being drained by the flowers that were latched onto their armor. And the monster, which had already been enlarged by Rita's magic, was preparing to crush the rangers underneath its foot.

Acting quickly Tommy drew his dagger form his holster at his hip and aimed it at the plant monster, and from the blade emerged a bright beam of green energy that sent Spit Flower crashing to the ground.

With the monster temporarily out of commission Tommy turned his attention to the other rangers, only to see that they were struggling to remove the flowers from their armor. Raising his hand Tommy sent a wave of white fire towards the rangers that burned the flowers to ashes, while leaving the rangers themselves unharmed.

"Thanks Tommy. But we'll take it from here." Jason said, as he regained his feet.

Tommy turned his attention to the Power Rangers. "No. I'll take care of this."

Jason paused as he heard the determination in his new friend's voice. His voice told that he would not be moved from this course of action. "Alright, we'll standby as backup." Jason called as he helped his team to their feet.

With that out of the way Tommy raised the Dragon Dagger to his helmet and played the song that summoned Caldazar. The notes were heard throughout the city, ringing loud and clear causing the already frightened civilians to panic as they heard that familiar haunting tune that summoned Caldazar.

From the depths of the harbor Caldazar rose up and roared out his readiness for battle. Stepping carefully out of the harbor, making sure not to cause any damage to the boats and harbor equipment. The civilians watching, took note of how much calmer the great zord seemed as it moved quickly to its ranger's aid.

Once Caldazar had arrived at the battlefield, the monster had recovered and was once again on its feet, and this time it was out for blood. When it saw the approaching form of Caldazar it quickly spewed out some of its energy draining flowers. Acting quickly Caldazar erected a green shield that caught and vaporized the incoming flowers, at that time Tommy teleported into Caldazar's cockpit in a flash of green lightning.

Kimberly watched in awe as Tommy sent Caldazar charging towards the plant monster. Only to end up running into another wave of flowers launched from Spit Flower's mouth. But before the flowers could begin to drain Caldazar's energy, the great zord pulsed with a white light, and all of a sudden white flames emerged from Caldazar's armor, systematically burning each and every flower on the dragon to ashes. As Kimberly watched Tommy attack the plant creature she telepathically contacted Ellisande and summoned her zord to assist Caldazar.

With the wave of flowers taken care of Caldazar quickly closed with the monster and immediately lashed the creature with his tail, sending the plant sprawling to the earth, where Caldazar sent a brutal kick to the creature's side lifting the monster into the air. Landing heavily onto the ground Spit Flower quickly rolled away, barely avoiding a stomp from the dragon's heavy foot.

Jason watched as the plant creature regained its feet and proceeded to charge the dragon. But as the creature picked up speed, Caldazar remained motionless, simply glaring at the rapidly approaching plant with bright shining green eyes. It was at that point that Jason realized what was about to happen, Spit Flower was about to make the same mistake that he did. And seconds later it happened. The red dots on Caldazar's chest flashed red causing a large green shield to appear in front of the zord, and when Spit Flower crashed into it, he was thrown backwards from both the force and the emerald lightning that shot out from the shield. Jason winced in sympathy for the monster, knowing how painful that move was. He then heard the sound of Ellisande's jets, and looking up he noticed that Kimberly had leaped into her zord, and joined the battle.

-Lunar Palace-

As Rita watched the fight progress, her patience snapped. "GOLDAR! SCORPINA!" The possessed witch shouted.

Immediately the two warriors appeared in a flash of golden flames. "Yes your majesty?" Goldar asked.

"I have a mission for you two, and I want it accomplished before this fight is over. If you are late, I can guarantee that you won't make it back. Now listen carefully."

-Earth-

Slowly getting back to its feet Spit Flower watched the dragon carefully, only to be hit in the back by two blasts from Ellisande's laser cannons. Screeching in agony the creature raised head to the sky as it howled out its pain to the world.

Unfortunately for the creature, this was its undoing. Tommy seeing an opening, started up Caldazar's drill and in a simple flick of the controls he sent the dragon's tail spearing towards the creatures neck, shearing through the mist sack, from which it spewed its energy draining flowers. Clutching its neck Spit Flower fell to the ground.

"Thanks for the assist Kimberly." Tommy called.

"No problem."

Tommy sent Caldazar marching forward and after the dragon placed a foot on the back of the monstrous plant Tommy began to pump massive amounts of magic into his zord. From the outside it looked as if the zord was glowing an ominous green. And as Caldazar opened his mouth, the ominous look was confirmed as bright emerald green flames shot from the dragon's mouth and began to burn the monster into ash. (3)

Nearly everyone watched in a mixture of both awe and horror as in the next two minutes Spit Flower was slowly turned into ashes. Once the monster was nothing more than a pile of ashes Caldazar raised his head to the skies and let out a roar of triumph to the heavens, a roar which was echoed by Ellisande's loud shriek.

Although their joy would be short lived once they found what had been taken from them.

**Hope you enjoyed chapter seven. Now I'm sorry to leave you with a cliff hanger, but it is a good place to end this chapter. The next chapter will be the last one in this story, and its looking like it will be massive.**

**1. Tommy in fact remembers everything. He remembers all that he has done when he was brainwashed as well as all the memories that Rita and Zedd had planted. In short he remembers everything from both his real life, and the implanted memories that his mom and dad placed.**

**2. In reality Tommy's control over his lightning and fire is actually a gift from his powers. Caldazar granted Tommy control over lightning and the falcon granted Tommy control over fire. Note that Tommy still has a lot more abilities to unlock from his ninjetti spirit, but that won't come until later. At the same time Kimberly is developing the ability to see visions and foresight. Her gift is from Ellisande and has yet to fully mature.**

**3. Note Tommy only provided the raw magic that allowed Caldazar to have access to some of his former abilities. So the fire is Caldazars, but it is Tommy who provides the energy **

**necessary for Caldazar to use them, hence why the flames were green.**

**Now don't forget to leave a review. And be ready because the next chapter is the last one of the story.**


	8. Prophecy

Ch 8

**Welcome to the final chapter in The Question of Loyalty. This is the grand finale, and as such it will have an awesome fight scene, climactic showdown, and bring this story to a conclusion, one which I hope that you'll be happy with. This chapter is completely mine, it has not been based on any episode, I hope that you enjoy.**

**I would like to apologize for how long it has taken me to post this chapter, but I have been very busy these last few weeks with college. In the last two weeks I have had five tests, a research project to turn in, and a speech to do in front of a class of forty fellow students. I had wanted to post this chapter last weekend, but I was unable to do so, because I was working all that weekend on school work. Nonetheless, I present you with the last chapter in **_**The Question of Loyalty**_**.**

**I would like to take the time to thank all those that have reviewed, favorite, and placed this story on their story alerts. Specifically I'd like to thank those who have reviewed my last chapter: Aith1234, brankel1, Vodams, Young at Heart21, oldtvlover, Anora Blaze Trueheart, Red Lightning, and Ghostwriter.**

**Note: I do not own Power Rangers.**

**This chapter begins not immediately after the last one. Also the first part of the story is told from Caldazar and Ellisande's point of view, so keep your wits about you.**

-Earth-

With the threat to his ranger's mate ended Caldazar felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Things were always more intense when one's family was on the line. With the battle over Tommy had teleported down to the other rangers, where he was welcomed with open arms, and when Ellisande's ranger joined them, Tommy was given an affectionate hug from the Pink Ranger.

Looking around Caldazar caught sight of a few civilians with strange black boxes on their shoulders staring at the sight of the Green Ranger getting a hug from the Pink Ranger in open astonishment. Chuckling to himself Caldazar looked up at his mate. "_I think that it's going to take these humans a long time to get used to me._"

Ellisande chuckled as she watched the previously astonished reporters flee in terror as her mate moved his tail towards them. "_I think that they would get used to you faster if you didn't purposefully frighten them._" Ellisande said. "_Besides, I think that they are more nervous of your ranger than they are of you. After all they only see us as robots._"

Caldazar snorted in annoyance at that thought. "_Whatever. But I guess that you do make a point about Tommy. Although I'm sure that they'll get used to the both of us in time._"

"_They might, but as I'm sure you've heard it won't be easy. Even if the rangers accept him, the city will still likely be very cautious of the both of you_." Ellisande commented. "_Now hurry up, it's time for us to go home. Why don't you bring your egg and we can stay at my island._"

Caldazar grinned at the thought of spending some time with his mate and their un-hatched children. "_Sounds good. Besides it will be nice to sleep on dry land for a change._" Caldazar said as he made his way slowly back to the harbor.

"_I would think that after ten thousand years as a zord you would have gotten used to sleeping under water._"

"_Yes and no. I am used to it but I also miss our cave. I am just glad that someday soon we'll be able to return to our own bodies, now that my ranger is working on a spell to reverse our transformation._" Caldazar said as he looked longingly up at the sky.

"_I know what you mean, I long to shed this metal and truly stretch my wings. I can only imagine what it's like for you to be without your wings._" Ellisande said as she pondered her mate's situation.

"_It's annoying and irritating beyond belief, but I know that I'll regain them soon enough. I'll see you at your island._" Caldazar said as he entered the harbor's waters. Ellisande smiled down at her mate as she rocketed towards her island, eager to spend some more time with her dragon.

But when Caldazar reached his home under the waves he immediately noticed something was off. Reaching out with his energy and searching with his eyes he looked to see if there were any traps in his home, after a few minutes of searching he concluded that there were no traps. But then his eyes were drawn towards his most prized possession, his egg. Only to find that the spells that he had set in place to guard the egg, had somehow been severed; and more worrisome than the spells being slashed was that the egg was gone.

At Ellisande's island she made a similar discovery. Both her egg, and her friend's egg were missing. In response to this horrifying discovery both zords let out a cry of pain and rage at the loss of their still to be born children.

Back in the city, the rangers had all demorphed and had begun to make their way towards the Youth Center to celebrate their victory, but as they were walking past an alley both Tommy and Kimberly suddenly clutched their heads in pain.

"Hey Tommy, Kimberly are you two alright?" Trini asked with worry clear in her voice, as she watched her friends continue to clutch their heads in pain

Painfully raising their heads Tommy and Kimberly caught each other's eyes and suddenly a flash of insight hit both rangers. "The eggs!" Kimberly shouted before both her and Tommy were teleported away in a flash of light of their respective colors.

Glancing around fearfully the rangers began to look around to see if anyone had noticed their two friends teleporting. Luckily it seemed that everyone was too focused on making speculations on the Green Ranger. With that problem taken care of Jason led his team into the alley so that they could try to find out what happened.

"Okay what was that about?" Zack asked once they were safely in the alley.

Billy shrugged his shoulders, knowing that the question was directed towards him. "I am not entirely sure why they teleported. But I am one hundred percent sure that neither Kim nor Tommy teleported on their own free will." Billy's suggestion gave Jason and Trini pause as they both recalled the time Jason was teleported into Goldar's clutches.

"How can you be sure?" Trini asked.

"I am sure because we know that Tommy is somehow able to teleport on his own, but every time he does so he vanishes and reappears in either a burst of green lightning or white fire; while this time he vanished in a flash of green light. So this leads me to speculate that he did not teleport of his own free will; someone or something else teleported him. As for Kimberly, it is simple she teleported at the exact same instant that our green compatriot did, leading me to believe that she was likely teleported by the same person or thing that took Tommy away." Billy said.

Jason and Zack stared at their blue friend as their minds worked on decoding what he said. Trini sighed and shortly explained what he said. "Tommy didn't teleport the way he normally does and odds are that Kim was teleported by the same person, seeing as they both disappeared at the same time. I suggest that we give Zordon a call and get his opinion and help."

Jason gave a nod and a smile of thanks to his girl before he contacted their leader. "Zordon we need your help. Tommy and Kimberly just disappeared while we were walking."

"Rangers I'm teleporting you all to the Command Center. You need to see what is about to happen." Zordon said ominously.

Seconds later the rangers found themselves standing in the Command Center. Jason quickly stepped forward, intent on finding the answers to what was going on. "Zordon, do you know what happened to Tommy and Kimberly?"

Zordon looked out from his interdimensional warp tube at his rangers. And after nodding towards Alpha he began to explain. "Rangers, what is about to happen is without a doubt the most important moment in the war against Rita."

Jason looked at his friends and receiving nods of confirmation he turned his attention back to their leader. "Then tell us what to do, and we will make sure that Rita is stopped."

Looking down on his ranger's Zordon felt a rush of pride. "I thank you for your dedication, but the battle that is about to be fought will not be fought by any of you. This fight must be fought by Tommy and Kimberly, and their zords. Turn your attention towards the viewing globe. If I am right then you will be among the few that will ever know about the most important battle in this war." The rangers solemnly and nervously turned their attention to the viewing globe and watched.

-Ellisande's Island-

Tommy and Kimberly found themselves standing on a volcanic island before their zords. Ellisande stood on Caldazar's shoulder glaring at the sky with more hatred than either ranger had ever seen, while Caldazar stood looking out towards the moon with, his eyes burning with a rage that equaled his mate's hate.

Kimberly and Tommy glanced at each other, and after a silent conversation, Tommy stepped forward and began to question the zords. "Caldazar. Ellisande. What's going on, why have you brought us here?"

As the two zords turned their attention to their rangers, much of their hatered and rage dimmed upon seeing their rangers "_You are here because we need your help._" Caldazar rumbled.

"Does this have anything to do with the eggs?" Kimberly asked.

Both zords' eyes flashed in anger as they recalled the recent theft of their children. Ellidande was the one to answer Kimberly. "_During the last battle someone snuck into our homes and took our eggs. We fear that it might have been Rita._"

Tommy looked to Caldazar for confirmation, to which the dragon gave with a reluctant nod, knowing how hard this would be for his ranger. "_I'm sorry Tommy, but I sensed Goldar's energy in my underwater home. And I know for a fact that he would never do anything so foolhardy and dangerous without being ordered to, and Goldar's loyalties lie only with Riat, Zedd, and Scorpina._"

"Why would Rita want to take your eggs? Ellisande, you told me that they will only hatch for the right person, and I highly doubt that they will hatch for anyone under Rita's employ. So why would she take them?" Kimberly questioned.

Tommy answered the question with a far off voice, his world thrown into confusion by his mother's actions. "Most likely Rita took the eggs so as to force me and Cladazar back into her service. She won't hurt the eggs, but she very well might find a way to corrupt the children inside."

"Alright, so there's no time to lose. What are we going to do and how do we get them back?" Kimberly asked, ready to take on Tommy's possessed mother to retrieve her 'big sister's' eggs. (1)

"_We need a way to get to the moon._" Ellisande said. "_While we can teleport, we only have a limited range and the moon is far beyond that._"

"Why's that?" Kimberly asked.

Caldazar growled out in annoyance before answering. "_When Zordon changed us into zords, he gave us great power, but he also limited the range of our abilities. We can teleport you two to us from pretty much anywhere, but we cannot teleport ourselves anywhere beyond Earth. Zordon wanted guardians of Earth, not free roaming creatures of power._"

"Well what if I ask Zordon to teleport us up to the moon. I'm sure that he would be able to help us out." Kimberly suggested.

Again Tommy was the one to answer the question, although his voice still possessed a far off quality. "I think you're forgetting something Kimberly." The Pink Ranger threw Tommy a puzzled look. "You told me about the rules of being a Power Ranger. Never use your powers for personal gain. Never escalate a battle unless necessary, and never reveal your secret identity. The only good rule he has is to keep your identity a secret, as long as one is willing to accept the consequences for one's actions then the other rules are useless. And besides he can't take either of our powers." Kimberly nodded reluctantly seeing where Tommy was going with this. "Now what Caldazar and Ellisande are suggesting is to storm my mom's palace and take back their children by force. This is a perfectly natural reaction by any parent. But Zordon will likely see it not only too aggressive, but also a misuse of powers. So he will probably be unwilling to help. He would most likely try to negotiate first, but I know my mother, she is a greedy person, and once she views something as hers she will hold onto it with all her might."

Unbidden a thought occurred to Kimberly; '_what does that say about you then?_'

"_So how do you propose to get us up to the moon?_" Ellisande asked; her patience fast wearing out as her fear for her children ate at her.

Tommy lowered his head as his thoughts and doubts began to swarm. '_I need to help them they're my family. But I can't go against my mom, she's my family too. After all she did take care of me for my entire life so far; wait that was not real, that's a memory that she planted in my mind. I grew up in orphanages across California not in that prison. But beyond that, can I even teleport all of us up to the moon? I mean I've never tried to move anything or anyone this big._' Tommy thought as he quickly took a look at both Caldazar and Ellisande. '_Not to mention we just fought a battle not even an hour ago, and I used a lot of energy to fuel Caldazar's flames._'

Doubt was beginning to cloud his head, in search of some hope and reassurance Tommy cast his gaze about and his eyes rose to meet Caldazar's. In the dragon's eyes Tommy saw the confidence that his friend and brother had in him. But still a lingering doubt ate at the back of his mind, stopping Tommy from fully committing to and helping his new family. "I can send you guys to the moon."

Kimberly looked to Tommy and as she caught his eyes she could see both the doubt and confusion swimming in his mind. "Are you sure that's what you want to do?" Kimberly asked, hearing what he had left out. Reluctantly Tommy nodded his head.

"You might want to morph. I'm pretty sure that there will be a welcoming party when you get there." Tommy said causing Kimberly to nod.

With a renewed sense of vigor Kimberly reached for her morpher only to take out her power coin. With the coin in her hand Kimberly closed her eyes and reached out for the power. Grasping hold of it she let the power wash over her. Waves of pink energy rushed out from the coin and quickly began covering her in her pink armor. In seconds she had completed her first willing morph without her morpher.

Tommy watched as Kimberly made her way towards Ellisande, who lowered her head so that her ranger could enter the cockpit. Once all three were ready Tommy raised his hands and reaching deep into his power he began the teleportation spell. After a few second of preparation, during which his body began to glow a bright green, Tommy cast the spell. The spot where Caldazar, Ellisande, and Kimberly were standing erupted in a massive burst of emerald lightning signaling that the three had departed for the moon. Looking towards the moon which had begun to rise into the sky, Tommy felt like the weight of the world was crushing down on him.

-Moon-

Seconds later Kimberly, Ellisande, and Caldazar found themselves standing on the moon in front of Rita's Lunar Palace. The ancient stone building was lit up with bright purple glows, due largely to the magic that was being preformed within the walls of the ancient building. But their way towards the palace was blocked by both Goldar and Scorpina, both of which were already in their giant forms.

"Well well well, look at what we have here Scorpina. It seems as if the parents want their precious children back." Goldar called out to the giant scorpion, to which Scorpina gave a cackle expressing her amusement at the desperation of the two zords.

"You're going to pay Goldar for stealing their eggs!" Kimberly shouted from Ellisande's cockpit.

"Is that the pink power puke that I hear? Where's your little green friend? Don't tell me that he sent his 'family' to face us by themselves while he stayed behind, safe and sound." Goldar mocked.

"Don't you mock Tommy, he'll come for us. And then you'll be sorry."

"Don't fool yourself little girl." Goldar said dead serious all of a sudden. "That boy you love is far more messed up than any of us know. Do you have any idea what it's like to live with two lifetime's worth of memories that disagree with each other at nearly every point?" Goldar paused to let the question settle in the heroes' minds. "Do you know what it's like to crave the love of a mother and father all of your life? You don't know that feeling; you, who have always been accepted, will never know the desperate ache for unconditional acceptance. Tommy will never join you, because no matter what the cost he will never abandon his _true_ family."

Kimberly felt her blood boil as Goldar's slurs against Tommy continued to spew forth, but it was Caldazar who reacted first. Roaring out a challenge Caldazar defended his ranger's honor. "_My ranger knows the truth. I have faith that he will join us. He knows what is true and who truly loves him._" Caldazar said as he gestured to Kimberly. "_But that is irrelevant, we came for _our_ family._"

"_Now give us back our children!_" Ellisande finished for Caldazar.

Scorpina and Goldar chuckled as they heard the zords demands. "I think not. After all you are playing on our turf now." Goldar said with a wicked grin before both he and Scorpina charged the two zords and lone Power Ranger.

Ellisande, with Kimberly in the cockpit, leapt off of Caldazar's shoulder and took off into the 'sky' to prepare for her attack. With Ellisande's weight off of his shoulder Caldazar rushed into battle, eager to make the two thieves pay for stealing his children.

From the 'sky' Kimberly watched as Caldazar pivoted and swung his mighty tail around and knocked Scorpina off of her feet and sent her tumbling down to the moon's surface. Unfortunately Goldar was able to slide under the Caldazar's attack, and launch a quick slash at the dragon's back. Roaring in anger, Caldazar whipped his body around and delivered a mighty slash to Goldar's chest. Stumbling back from the blow, Goldar prepared to charge Caldazar, only to bring himself to a halt as Ellisande opened fire with her laser cannons and pelted Goldar's vulnerable wings with cannon fire, causing the gold titan to turn and face the diving pterodactyl. But with his back turned Caldazar moved forward and prepared to kick Goldar in the back to bring the golden warrior to the ground where he might bring the gold titan to a quick end.

But in his rage against Goldar, Caldazar had forgotten about Scorpina, who had quickly recovered from her fall and had been sneaking up on the dragon. With his attention occupied by Goldar, Scorpina leaped up and onto Caldazar's back, whereupon she grabbed his hands with her pincers and wrenched them to the sides, leaving him open for a counter-attack by Goldar.

Once Ellisande had pulled out of her dive, Goldar turned his attention back onto Caldazar. And when the gold titan discovered that the great dragon was temporarily immobilized a wicked grin crossed his face. Flourishing his blade Goldar rushed the dragon, fully prepared to skewer the great zord on his blade. But Goldar had forgotten Caldazar's incredibly flexible tail, which lunged out from behind the dragon and speared into Goldar's side. Thrown off by the quick attack by Caldazar, Goldar quickly found himself on his back gasping breath as he struggled to regain his strength.

But with Scorpina on his back slashing and stinging him, Caldazar was in no position to finish him off. Goldar let a grin cross his face as he saw Scorpina land a particularly painful sting to the dragon, causing him to let out a roar trumpeting his pain to the barren moon. It was at that time that Ellisande began her next attack run. When the pink pterodactyl saw her mate in trouble she angled herself around and unleashed a barrage of lasers that impacted against Scorpina's unprotected and unguarded back. Letting out a hiss of pain Scorpina released Caldazar and scurried away from the dragon, only to find herself quickly dangling from Ellisande's claws. A few seconds later the pink zord released the hideous scorpion sending it crashing into the ground near Goldar.

With his partner temporarily down Goldar climbed to his feet, and ignited his sword, causing golden flames to dance along the blade of the weapon. With his flaming sword Goldar sent arcs of flame towards the two zords.

Kimbelry glared down at Goldar from her cockpit. With a quick mental conversation to Ellisande, Kimberly was teleported onto Ellisande's wing, where upon Ellisande began to circle the battle field. Summoning her bow to herself Kimberly charged an arrow with her energy, causing the missile to glow a bright pink. Taking aim at the flame swinging titan Kimberly released the arrow, which when coupled with the extra energy, and the extra g's generated by Ellisande's circling, the arrow quickly gained speed and when it impacted against Goldar's hand, the energy stored in the arrow released and caused Goldar to involuntarily drop his sword. Smiling to herself in satisfaction Kimberly teleported back into the cockpit.

With Goldar's flames currently extinguished Caldazar charged towards the golden titan. As he closed with Goldar, Caldazar noticed that Scorpina had recovered her wits and had regained her feet. With both enemies together and waiting Caldazar raised his hands and prepared to fire his rockets at the duo. But before he could fire, a purple beam of magic fired from the Lunar Palace nailing Caldazar in the side and sending him to the ground in pain. Apparently Rita had decided to aid her minions.

With his foe on the ground in pain Goldar grabbed his blade and began to stalk towards the injured zord. "You see dragon, this is how it's meant to be; the noble knight victoriously triumphing over vicious dragon."

"_In what possible universe could you ever be a noble knight?_" Caldazar mocked. Goldar snarled at the injured zord and raised his sword preparing to finish off the dragon once and for all. When all of a sudden Caldazar raised himself up and with a quick jerk of his head he slashed Goldar across the chest with his bladed dorsal fin, leaving a deep mark on the golden warrior's armor. "_Don't count me out of the fight just yet._"

-Tommy' Mind-

As Tommy sat on the edge of the outcropping on the white mountain that dominated the skyline of the island that was his mind, he found himself staring down at Caldazar's cave that sat at the edge of the bay, and he let his mind drift.

His heart ached to go up there and help his 'brother' reclaim his children, but at the same time he couldn't make himself go to not only Caldazar's aide, but also to Ellisande's and especially Kimberly's. He was caught between his loyalties. His loyalty to his mother dictated that he should defend her. But at the same time he knew that his mother was planning on enslaving the earth and adding it to her evil empire. While his loyalty towards Caldazar, Ellisande, and Kimberly demanded that he help them rescue the eggs. But with both loyalties tugging at him in opposite directions he didn't know which to choose. Sighing in both exhaustion and frustration Tommy let himself fall to his back to stare at the sky. But as he stared at the sky he noticed a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.

Turning to see what had moved in his mind Tommy was stunned to see the previously sleeping falcon stretching his wings. After a minute of stretching the white falcon turned its bright golden eyes onto the green eyed teen, fixing Tommy with a predatory stare. "_What are you doing here?_"

Quickly regaining his senses Tommy stood to his feet and made his way to the falcon. "What do you mean? And who are you?"

The falcon looked annoyed at Tommy's questions, as its feathers became ruffled. "_I am Gwaithir, your Ninjetti Spirit. But who and what I am is irrelevant as to what you are doing. Why are you here, when you should be helping out your family?_"

Tommy sighed and ran his hands through his hair in exasperation. "That's the problem. What family do I help? My birth family, or the one that I'm creating? Which should I choose, should I help my mother, or should I go and save Kimberly, Caldazar, and Ellisande?"

Gwaithir leveled another glare at his human after he had finished settling his feathers. "_Why is this a hard decision Tommy? Tell me what loyalty do you owe to that woman you call mother. Rita has abandoned you, kidnapped you, tortured you, and brainwashed you. She's made you fight not only your new friends, nearly to their destruction. But she also made you fight your mate when she fully knew the consequences of what would happen if you destroyed her. Rita is a evil selfish witch who does not want you the way you are, no she wants her evil son back. Rita is not your mother; you are the son of Leanna and Alric._" Flapping himself out of his nest and onto a pointed rock Gwaithir closed with his human to drive his point home. "_And I don't know about you but I like who I am. I am no pigeon to be led by a string and neither are you. We are hunters, predators. With few exceptions, we follow no one's commands except ourselves and our mate's. You have a dragon's power, and the spirit of a falcon, and yet you sit here when you let your family face mortal peril while you ponder an easy question._"

"_You let the one who has watched over you since the day you were born go do battle for his family. Your own brother and guardian is out there right now fighting with everything that he has to rescue his children, and what do you do?_" Gwaithir asked causing Tommy to look down in shame as the Ninjetti Spirit's words pounded into him. "_That's right you stand here hiding away from one of the most important choices that you will likely ever make. I can't make the decision for you, but just remember what you stand to lose if Rita wins this time._"

"_That witch parading around in your mother's body will destroy Caldazar and Ellisande without a second thought. The eggs will likely become twisted by Rita's dark magic forcing the children to become something that they were never meant to be. And let's not forget about Kimberly and Amara. _(2) _Rita will kill our mates for no reason except that they loved us, and helped to release us from the chains that she bound us with. So what's it going to be Tommy? What are you going to choose?_" Gwaithir challenged his human.

-Moon-

As the fight with Goldar and Scorpina progressed, the outcome was becoming clearer. While Caldazar could battle Goldar easily on an even playing field, the terrain was working greatly towards the gold titan. Specifically, Goldar had begun to spring traps that he had set up previously on the moon. And while the traps were slowing Caldazar down, the biggest hindrance in his fight against Goldar, was that Rita kept throwing blasts of magic at the great dragon causing a lot of damage and pain to Caldazar, yet still he soldiered on, determined to rescue his children.

While the fight between Ellisande and Kimberly against Scorpina was going more favorably for the rescuers. With Scorpina 'earthbound' Ellisande was free to strafe the giant scorpion without much worry. Although Kimberly had noticed on one of their earlier passes that Scorpina had managed to land a large shot of acid onto her zord's wing, which was steadily eating through Ellisande's armor.

As Goldar strode towards the wary and weary dragon he took the opportunity to mock his opponent again. "Give up dragon. There is no way that you and your mate can beat us, even with the help of the puny Pink Ranger you are no match for us now that the queen has decided to take part in the battle. Face it dragon, you are finished."

"_Not if I have anything to say about it!_" Ellisande screeched as she dive bombed Goldar, tackling the great golden giant to the ground, where she proceeded to peck at him with her beak and beat at him with her wings. With Goldar occupied with Ellisande, Kimberly teleported to the top of Ellisande's head where she readied an arrow brimming with pink energy, taking aim Kimberly released the arrow straight at Goldar's eye.

With reflexes born out of long combat, Goldar twisted his head out of the way and let the arrow impact against the moon's surface, causing a small explosion as the energy stored within the arrow detonated, with the threat of blindness over Goldar teleported out from under the furious pterodactyl zord.

Calldazar watched in horror as Goldar raised his sword in preparation to split Ellisande and Kimberly in half. Quickly he raised his hands and launched his rockets, only for the missiles to run into a shot of acid that quickly ate through the rockets casing and causing them to explode before they reached Goldar.

Grinning evilly, Goldar brought down his sword, in time to watch as Ellisande and Kimberly turned to look with wide eyes as the blade of their destruction swiftly approached. But Goldar's glee vanished as his sword was repulsed by a green diamond shaped shield. Goldar stepped back from the shield in shock, looking down at the ground he noticed Tommy standing on the moon, morphed as the Green Ranger, with his hand raised high shielding Kimberly and Ellisande.

"Tommy!" Kimberly shouted, as she leapt from her spot on Ellisande's head and down to Tommy to wrap him in a hug. "I knew you'd come."

Tommy eagerly returned the hug before whispering into Kim's ear. "Sorry I'm late, but I needed a little guidance from a bird."

"You! How dare you stand against your mother boy? You need to learn your place." Goldar accused.

"I know my place Goldar; and its right beside these guys!" Tommy said as he gestured to Kimberly, Caldazar and Ellisande. "Now let us in or else." Tommy threatened.

In response both Goldar and Scorpina readied themselves to defend the entryway into the palace. Tommy shrugged before he released Kimberly and teleported himself to the top of Caldazar's head. Placing his hand against Caldazar's armored skull, Tommy began to feed energy into Caldazar, helping to both energize the tired zord, as well as to repair his damaged armor. "Sorry I'm late brother."

"_I'm just glad that you made the right choice in time._" Caldazar rumbled out, as he felt himself being restored. "_Now let's finish this fight._"

Tommy nodded as he leapt from the top of Caldazar's head and onto the moon below. Gathering his power Tommy preformed the one Ninjetti technique that he had mastered. In flash of white flames and energy Tommy once again stood as tall as Goldar. Reaching for his holster Tommy drew forth the Dragon Dagger and prepared to fight.

With Scorpina and Goldar distracted by Tommy's sudden appearance Ellisande and Kimberly took the opportunity to take off and escape to the 'sky' where they could do the most damage. Circling high in the air Kimberly and Ellisande waited for the opportunity to attack. Ellisande caught Caldazar's gaze and began another attack run, raking Goldar and Scorpina's backs with laser fire. Shuddering in pain the giants turned to the attack and began to deflect the pterodactyl's fire, only to leave their backs open to the Green Ranger and his zord.

With a nod to each other, both Tommy and Caldazar rushed the occupied giants. Caldazar took the lead and after activating the drill on his tail, he pivoted around whipping his drill tipped tail across Goldar and Scorpina's backs, damaging them even further. Tommy leapt up into the air and lashed out with both legs hitting the giants in their heads, and sending them to the ground in a crumpled heap. Caldazar strode forward and raised a massive foot above the back of the golden warrior. With great force Caldazar began to stomp Goldar into the ground.

Tommy turned his attention to the recovering Scorpina, who had managed to get to her hands and knees. Tommy raised his dagger and charged the blade with energy, causing it to glow a brilliant green. With a few quick slashes Tommy sent out three crescent shaped arcs of green energy crashing into Scorpina's back, causing the hideous creature to let out a loud his of pain. Stepping forward Tommy pointed his dagger at Scorpina's back and sent arcs of lightning at the giant arachnid. (3) To add onto the scorpion's punishment Ellisande and Kimberly came in and let loose another round of laser fire onto the scorpion's back.

In a manner of minutes neither warrior could take the abuse anymore, and the spell that made them grow was shattered, causing the two warriors to shrink back down to their original size and form. Picking themselves off the ground Goldar and Scorpina looked up to see a predatory gleam in both Caldazar and Ellisande's eyes as they took sight of those that stole their children. "Goldar, I think now would be a good time for us to run." Scorpina said as Ellisande landed and made her way next to her mate.

"Right you are my dear." Goldar said as both he and Scorpina ran away from the zords.

Tommy released the Ninjetti technique and in a flash of white flames he had returned to his normal size. Kimberly quickly leapt from Ellisande's cockpit landing next to Tommy as her zord made off to chase the shrunken warriors. "We better hurry, it won't take Rita too long to recast the spell on Goldar and Scorpina." Tommy said as he ran for the Lunar Palace.

Kimberly, keeping pace with Tommy was quick to ask. "But after all that damage, would they even be ready to fight again so soon?"

"Not really, but Rita won't care. As long as she win's this fight she's willing to accept almost any casualties." Tommy said as they entered the palace.

Kimberly nodded in understanding. In silence the two teens ran down the halls, towards Rita's throne room. But as they approached the main hallway they noticed that it was filled to the brim with hundreds of putties and a few monsters that Kimberly had faced before. "I should have known." Kimberly said as she summoned her bow to her hand. Tommy chuckled and drew his dagger.

Drawing her bow back, Kimberly charged an arrow with a huge amount of energy causing the arrow to glow bright as the stars dancing in the sky. Taking aim Kim released the arrow directly at the mass of putties. But instead of only destroying a single putty or erupting in an explosion of energy, the arrow lanced through the field of putties, wiping out any putty that stood in the path of the arrow, until finally reaching the back wall the arrow stuck into the stone of the palace before erupting in a blaze of pink energy, destroying all putties within a five foot radius of the arrow. Kimberly turned to Tommy with a smile crossing her face beneath her helmet. "I've gotten a lot better with my weapon."

Tommy was impressed by the damage done, but he could tell that Kim was running low on energy. "Not bad. Now how about I finish off the monsters, and then we can finish off the rest of them." Kim nodded in agreement as she readied herself for the upcoming melee. Tommy raised his left hand up and in the palm of his hand a small green orb of energy began to take form, quickly becoming the size of a softball. With the orb of energy in hand, Tommy took aim and launched the orb of emerald energy at the group of monsters in the middle of the putties. As the orb impacted, it exploded in a furious burst of energy destroying all the monsters and a few putties that stayed too close to them.

The putties having suffered the loss of several of their own, and the monsters that were supposed to lead them in defense of the throne room, charged the two rangers, intent on stopping them from reaching their mistress. Tommy and Kimberly gave each other a look before charging the army of putties, with their weapons glowing brightly with their colors.

Kimberly waded into the rushing putties and with a few quick twirls and slashes with her bow, the putties before her fell to the ground, where they laid dead to the world. Dancing and leaping among the army of putties using her bow to destroy any of Rita's minions that got too close, Kim made her way to the doorway leading into the throne room.

Meanwhile Tommy raced through the army of minions intent on saving his brother's children. Any putty that came near Tommy was quickly dealt with by the Dragon Dagger. The dagger seemed to glow with a near feral fury as Tommy used it to kill any and all putties that stood in his way. In a matter of minutes both Tommy and Kimberly had reached the end of the hallway and stood before the throne room. Behind them the bodies of the fallen putties flashed as the decayed from their animated form, and returned to the clay from which they were made.

"Ready for this Tommy?" Kim asked as she struggled to regain her breath.

"Give me a minute. I'm running low on energy." Tommy said as he rested against a wall. This day had been extremely exhausting. A big fight earlier today, combined with teleporting two zords and Kimberly to the moon, repairing Caldazar's armor, using his Ninjetti growth technique to fight Goldar and Scorpina, not to mention all the battle magic and energy he had been throwing around during the fights. All in all Tommy felt ready to drop, but he wouldn't stop now.

"Are you going to be alright?" Kimberly asked, worry clear in her voice.

Tommy gave her a nod as he pulled himself off the wall and made his way to the large rune covered black marble doors. After readying their weapons Tommy sent Kimberly a look, to which she drew her bow and fired an arrow at the lock of the doors, shearing straight through the large bolt before it continued on its way into the room beyond. Tommy sent a nod of thanks to Kimberly before he charged his dagger with some energy causing it to glow a soft green. Crouching low Tommy leaped up to the top of the doors where he proceeded to thrust his dagger into the door's crack before dragging the blade down with him, cutting through the bars that kept the door closed, as well as slicing through any and all spells that were placed upon the door.

With the door unlocked and dispelled of any magical traps, the way forward was open. Tommy grabbed the handle of one of the doors and Kim grabbed the other, in unison the two rangers pulled the massive black marble doors open. Again readying their weapons Tommy and Kimberly carefully made their way through the doorway, on the lookout not only for more dangers and traps, but also for the eggs.

And there they found them. All three eggs sitting together on a pile of hay safe and sound, underneath a purple barrier of magic. Each egg was about a foot tall and about four or five inches wide, but despite their size, both rangers knew their importance. As the two rangers approached the glowing barrier Tommy tried to get a feel for what kind of spells that were woven to protect the eggs. As he and Kimberly circled the bright barrier he could feel a great amount of magic sustaining the shield, and he knew that if he and the others had any hope of getting off the moon, then he'd need to find a different way than usual to break the spell.

"What's the matter Tommy?" Kim asked as she noticed Tommy glaring at the barrier.

"This shield. Rita placed a great deal of magic into it and knowing her a lot of traps as well. If I break it like I have been doing to all her other spells, then I won't have enough energy to teleport us all back." Tommy said as he continued to glare at the shield.

As Tommy stood in front of the barrier thinking of a way to get to the eggs Kimberly heard two familiar voices quickly approaching, giving her an idea. "Tommy." Kimberly whispered drawing the Green Ranger's attention away from the magic barrier and to herself. Bringing her head close to his helmet, Kimberly whispered her plan in Tommy's ear, causing a wide smile to cross his face.

"That's brilliant Kim." And in a few seconds he had set up the illusion Kim had suggested as well as cloaking themselves in an illusion that made it seem as if they were invisible. And a minute later two more people entered the great chamber.

"I'm telling you Squat, that this is a good idea." Said Baboo.

"I know, I know, it's just that the queen specifically told us to not interfere with this plan of hers. If she finds out that we have been lurking around, then she'll have our hides." Squat replied to his taller companion.

"Oh hush now Sqaut. After all we are only patrolling the palace. It's not as if we have actually done anything to interfere with the queen's plans. Now be quiet, we are approaching where Rita has placed the eggs, so be careful not to activate any of the traps that she has placed."

"I understand Baboo. Uh hey Baboo, why aren't the eggs under the barrier?"

"What are you talking about?" Baboo asked, as he turned to look at where the eggs were supposed to be, only to see hay instead of the dragon and pterodactyl eggs. Looking towards the entrance he noticed that the doors were pushed open, and the spells that guarded the doors were severed and cut. "Ahh! Squat hurry we need to check out what happened to the eggs."

Squat wobbled towards the barrier and as he reached into his pouch he pulled out some powder and tossed it onto the barrier causing it to fizzle out, leaving the eggs exposed. But as soon as the barrier was down Baboo and Squat were painfully made aware that they weren't the only ones in the chamber.

In seconds the two minions found themselves flying through the air as both the Green and Pink Rangers left their illusion cover and sent two kicks at the minions sending them crashing into the far wall. Baboo and Squat watched as the two rangers quickly gathered the eggs into their arms and made their way out of the chamber.

"Hey Baboo?"

"Yeah, Squat?"

"We're going to be in trouble when this is all over."

"Yeah."

-With Tommy and Kimberly-

"I can't believe that worked." Kimbely said as she ran through the halls of the Lunar Palace with Ellisands and Caldazar's eggs in her and Tommy's arms.

"Are you kidding that plan couldn't have worked any better." Tommy replied, excitement coursing through his veins as he felt victory within their grasp.

Kim felt herself blush at Tommy's praise. "Well it only worked because we were dealing with Baboo and Squat. Anyway we've dealt with four of Rita's minions, all that's left is Finster right?"

"Yeah, but I doubt that we will run into him. After all he is more along the lines of a scientist and doctor as opposed to a fighter. We should probably let Caldazar and Ellisande know that we're on our way out." Tommy suggested.

Kimberly nodded and reaching out with her mind she contacted Ellisande. "_We're on our way out; we got all three eggs, so hurry and make your way back to the Palace entrance._" In response Kimberly got the equivalent of a mental nod of confirmation from her zord.

"Alright, Ellisande is on her way." Kimberly said as they rounded a corner only to be met with another wall of purple energy. "You have to hand it to Rita; she's persistent if nothing else."

Tommy shifted the egg he was carrying to his left arm, allowing him to free up his right hand. Reaching for his dagger Tommy channeled a bit of energy into the blade causing it to glow green, stepping forward he slashed at the purple wall of energy causing it to dissipate into the air. With the way out once again cleared Tommy and Kimberly made their way towards the Lunar Palace's main entrance.

Five minutes later and several walls of energy destroyed; the two rangers had reached the entrance of the palace, where they could see Caldazar and Ellisande eagerly awaiting both their children and their rangers. Spurned on further by the sight of their friends Tommy and Kimberly ran faster, only to skid to a stop as Rita stepped out of the shadows and between them and their zords.

"Well done Tommy. I must say that I am impressed by your resourcefulness. But I'm afraid that you won't be going any further." Rita said as she hefted her wand.

"You haven't won yet Rita!" Kimberly shouted.

Rita snapped her attention towards the Pink Ranger and glared at the girl. "Ah Kimberly, my least favorite Power Ranger, always you've had your friends to help you, but now you and my son have walked right into my home. While it's true that your powers are growing there is no way that you and my exhausted son have a chance at beating me." Rita said as she raised her wand and shot a blast of magic at the Pink Ranger.

Kimberly quickly pivoted away from the blast of magic and tried to make a break for the zords. Only to run into another wall of energy conjured up by Rita. As Kimberly fell onto her back Rita raised her wand in preparation to eliminate the pink brat for good when Tommy suddenly dashed between them.

"Take your best shot Rita, I'm not afraid of you." Tommy declared as he raised his Dragon Dagger to his helmet. Rita scowled at her son's defiance and shot another blast of magic at him, not enough to cause lasting harm, but enough to knock him unconscious. But she had forgotten about the Dragon Shield.

Tommy quickly played a specific tune on the Dragon Dagger, causing his gold vest to glow a bright green which easily reflected the blast of magic back at Rita, causing the witch to hastily throw up a shield of magic to take the blast.

"Well done Tommy. I had forgotten how good your personal defenses were; but I do wonder how good your little girlfriend's are." Rita said with a twisted grin crossing her face as she leveled her wand at the recovered Pink Ranger.

Kimberly watched in stunned horror as her enemy, Tommy's own mother, launched a series of purple blasts at her. As the blasts neared Kimberly Tommy resigned himself to what was about to come.

Rita watched in satisfaction as her son quickly raised a green shield between her magic blasts, shielding both the pink brat and the two eggs that she carried. As the shield was lowered Rita let out a loud cackle as she saw her victory at hand.

Kimberly stood there unnerved as the evil witch that she and her friends had been fighting for over a year let out a wicked cackle as her attack on her failed. "What are you laughing at Rita? In case you didn't notice your attack failed."

"You don't get it do you little girl? While I won't deny that I would have been pleased beyond all measure to see you dead, those attacks weren't mean to harm you."

Kimberly glared at Rita, before her mind started to piece together what had happened. "You made him use up his energy."

"That's right little girl. Your sweetheart, my _son_, has consumed vast amounts of energy today. And it takes a large amount of energy to teleport creatures such as your zords. If Tommy exerts all his energy and will right now he would have enough energy to teleport all but one of you back to Earth."

"You mean someone has to stay behind." Kimberly argued.

"Exactly. For a weak little girl your mind is sharp. But it doesn't matter who stays, because regardless; I win." Rita crowed. "Let me spell it out for you while Tommy debates on who stays and who gets away to safety. If you stay I will kill you, and be rid of the biggest annoyance in my life since Zordon. If either of your zords stay; well my husband and I will corrupt and strip away all traces of their personality, leaving us with a powerful and obedient weapon. And if eggs stay, I will have plenty of time to corrupt them and raise three new zords, loyal only to me. Although I doubt that either Caldazar or Ellisande would leave their precious children behind with me. And lastly, if Tommy stays; I will wipe his memory again and send him far away. He will help my husband, Lord Zedd in his conquests. He'll be forever out of your reach little girl, and once I conquer Earth, my family will once again be complete. Now Tommy, show me your true character, who will you save, and who will you leave behind!" Rita cackled, as she tasted victory.

Tommy lowered his head as his choices pounded in his head. But as he looked around he felt his determination harden. Looking up Tommy gazed at Caldazar and Ellisande, and he could feel their worry for both him and Kimberly, and their eggs. Turning his attention to the eggs he felt for the children. For he knew that if they were left behind then the woman parading about in his mother's body would do as she said and force the eggs to hatch, twisting their minds in the process to conform to her will and desires. And lastly he turned his eyes on Kimberly, the girl who had saved him when his mind was lost, the girl he loved; he couldn't leave her behind.

"_My_ family comes first." Tommy said as he built up the magic for the spell and in a great flash of green lightning everyone vanished.

"I had a feeling that you'd stay behind Tommy." Rita said as she watched her son struggle to his feet from where he had fallen down, utterly exhausted and spent. Once he had gained his feet he released his hold on his morph and let it slip away. Standing up he stood before his 'mother' unarmored and unprotected, too exhausted to even summon the Dragon Dagger.

"Like I'd leave _my_ family here alone to fight you off, this is my mess, and I'll face the consequences for my heritage and my choices." Tommy said as he stood tall.

"My my, seems like you have all but joined those little power pukes." Rita mocked her son. "But you and I both know where your true allegiances lie."

"They lie with my family." Tommy replied.

"Yes yes, your family. But in a few hours you'll have forgotten all about those that you call family. And then all your loyalty will again be placed on me and your father." Rita exclaimed; the thought of her son once again by her side filling her with joy.

"That is only if you can erase my memories, and I have taken great efforts to protect my mind." Tommy said.

"My dear son, surely you must have realized by now that with magic, there are many ways to slip past guards." Rita said as she smiled wickedly. Shifting her attention she saw Goldar and Scorpina walking towards her. "Ah good to see that you are still alive, I had hoped that you would escape the parent's wrath."

Scorpina glared at her old friend. "Good that we survived? Rita the dragon was trying to crush us, if we were a second slower we wouldn't be having this conversation. Not mention that I am convinced that the pink flying lizard was trying to eat me!"

"Calm down Scorpina, everything worked in the end. See we have reclaimed our warrior." Goldar said as he laid a hand on Scorpina's shoulder, causing her frustrations to ease a little. "I'm glad that the plan worked your majesty, but surely there had to be another, easier way of regaining your son."

"It doesn't matter if there was or not. And besides," here Rita's grin became truly evil as she explained. "There is nothing more amusing than watching others suffer. Now hurry up, and bring my son to my sands. It's time that he forgot about the rangers, and remembered his true family." Rita said causing both Goldar and Scorpina to grab one of Tommy's arms and began to march him through the palace.

-Command Center-

Kimberly arrived in the midst of the Command Center in a flash of emerald lightning holding all three eggs. Kimberly looked around and noticed that all of her friends were there gathered around the viewing globe. Although once they noticed the flash of lightning they all turned around and gathered around her.

Amidst all the congratulations that the other rangers were giving her, she let her morph fall.

"Well done Kimberly, you fought well and saved the eggs. I have never been more proud of you." Zordon said causing another round of celebrations amongst the rangers.

"Wait!" Kimberly shouted causing the rangers to silence themselves. "Tommy. He stayed behind didn't he?"

"I'm afraid so Kimberly. But he ha-"

"That can't be the end of it Zordon. You know full well what is about to happen. He's about to be brainwashed all over again. And I'm afraid that this time, he might not come back." Kim said with tears forming in her eyes. "We can't leave him behind."

Zordon looked down on the Pink Ranger, and as he stared into her eyes he could both see and feel her determination to help this boy who had stolen her heart.

Jason seeing his 'little sister' so heartbroken over what might happen stepped up to lend his aid to her plea. "Look Zordon Kim's right. We need to help Tommy get out of there, even if it's for entirely selfish reasons, such as not wanting him as our enemy again. But beyond that even though we didn't hear everything (4) that was going on up there; I understand that Tommy showed a true ranger spirit. He put others before himself. He's even willing to be brainwashed all over again to keep everyone else safe."

Trini was the next to step up and lend her aid to her best friend. "Yeah Zordon. Look at him, he fought for his family out there. He may have joined late, but nonetheless he fought against impossible odds, and he knew better than anyone else how dangerous this was, yet he still went anyway. You cannot deny his courage."

Billy was quick to add his input as well. "If this is about responsibility, then it is a wasted lesson. Tommy used his powers for his own personal use, but look at him. He's willing to go through the loss of his entire life's memories for the safety of his family. He is more responsible than any of us are, for he's willing to face the consequences for his actions. And I fear that Kimberly may be right. If Tommy's mind is brainwashed again, especially so close to his last brainwash, then there is a possibility that he will lose his true memories forever."

Zack after a moment's hesitation stepped up as well. "Zordon, we need to save him. He's not the person that we fought before. And while he may follow his own rules, he is still my friend. And after watching him fight through hordes of Rita's minions for those eggs, I think all of us realize that we couldn't ask for a better friend."

Zordon looked upon his rangers, and upon seeing their determination to help their friend he felt both a sense of pride fill him as well as a deep sense of shame. "You have all made excellent points. And I'm ashamed that my distrust of Tommy has caused my hesitation. But you have forgotten one more reason; this is the right thing to do. Alpha bring him in."

Everyone smiled as Alpha scurried over to the teleportation controls, and in a few seconds, a flash of green light lit up the room as Tommy stood before them.

Stumbling slightly Tommy quickly regained his orientation and once he did he noticed that he was standing in the Command Center, one of the last places he thought he'd ever stand in. But his thoughts and doubts were quickly washed away as he saw Kimberly and his friends standing around him with smiles on their faces. As he took in his surroundings the realization hit him. He was safe.

Zordon watched in amusement as all the rangers gathered around their newest friend and gave him congratulatory hugs and praises. But he had something to say to the Green Ranger. "Tommy, step forward please."

As Tommy did, he noticed how all his friends had taken a respectful step back. "Zordon, thanks for the assist."

"It was my pleasure. I just needed a little prodding and reminding form the others. Now onto business, I would like for you to officially join the Power Rangers."

"You know how I feel about your rules." Tommy said.

"I do, but in light of the maturity that you and Kimberly showed on the moon and the dangers that you and Kimberly specifically will be facing from now on. I am willing to agree to what you two will."

Tommy paused and as he took a glance at Kimberly he felt his mind made up. "We'll keep out identities a secret."

"Very well. Rangers, I present to you the sixth Power Ranger." Zordon proclaimed. "At long last the prophecy has come to pass. And as it was prophesied so it came to be, family has decided the fate of the Dragon and his Ranger. Billy present Tommy with his communicator."

Tommy watched as Billy left the gaggle of friends and made his way to a wall of the Command Center, where after pushing a specific panel, Billy picked up a box. After bringing said box to Tommy, Billy opened it revealing both a dark green communicator that looked like a watch, as well as a morpher. Reaching into the box Tommy removed the communicator, but left the morpher, deciding to continue morphing as he has. After placing the communicator on his wrist Tommy turned to his friends.

"So Tommy, what are you going to do now?" Zack asked.

"Now. Well I think that I owe a special girl some dinner." Tommy said as he looked at Kimberly, causing said girl to blush prettily. "Zordon, do you think that we can leave the eggs here for you to watch."

"I'll actually send the eggs to their parents. Now you two go out and enjoy your date." Zordon said.

"That was a great story grandma," said a little girl of about seven years with deep brown hair and deep soulful brown eyes.

"Yeah that was awesome grandma." Agreed a boy only about eight years old, with light sun bleached brown hair, and hazel eyes.

"Why thank you Kylee and Samuel. And I'm sure that little Jason enjoyed it as well, before he fell asleep that is." A beautiful women with white hair said, and although she was about fifty plus years old, her smile still lit up rooms. Hoisting the little three year old into her arms the grandma stood up, keeping the brown haired and hazel eyed child close.

"But grandma Leanna," Samuel whined. "We want to hear another story about mom and dad."

"Yeah." Kylee agreed. "I want to hear about how Dad visited Mom nearly every day when she was in Florida training for that gymnastic competition of hers."

"Well I want to hear about how Dad restored Caldazar and Ellisande back to their original forms." Samuel said.

"I want to hear about how Mom and Dad reacted when they first met grandpa Alric when he was still Zedd." Kylee said.

"I want to hear about Mom and Dad's Ninjetti adventures." Samuel argued, causing his younger sister to agree as to wanting to hear about that story.

"Yeah, but I also want to know what happened to the eggs." Kylee said.

"Good point, but don't you want to hear about the Maligore incident?" Samuel asked

"Well yeah. But I really want to hear about how mom and dad fought against dad's evil clone." Kylee said causing her older brother to nod in excitement.

"Children, children." Leanna reprimanded. "I'm not telling you another story tonight, but next time I'll be sure to tell you another one. Maybe I'll even get grandpa Alric to help out."

"Yay!" The two still awake children shouted causing their little brother to stir a little.

"Now go to bed, your parents will be home any minute now, and I don't want them coming in and seeing that you are still awake." Leanna said as she made her way out of the sibling's room and switched the light out.

After she made her way to Jason's room and put the little three year old to bed she made her way out to the living room of her son's house to wait for him and Kimberly to come back from their date night.

Ten minutes later the door opened, letting an older Tommy and Kimberly into the house, smiles on their faces and laughter glinting in their eyes. Leanna looked on her son and daughter-in-law with a smile on her face. Even after countless fights with aliens and invaders, as well as ten years of marriage the two were even deeper in love than she thought possible.

Upon seeing her mother-in-law watching them with a smile on her face Kimberly led Tommy over to Leanna, where upon the old and beloved grandma received a series of hugs. "So how were they?" Kimberly asked.

"Oh they were fantastic. They just love my stories." Leanna replied, with a smile lighting here face.

Tommy chuckled at the look on his mom's face. "So what story did you tell them?"

"Oh I just told them how you two met, as well as your early days as a Power Ranger." Leanna said waving off the question. "Now I must be off, I want to at least talk to Alric before he falls asleep on me." Leanna said a fond smile lighting her face. "Now you two enjoy the rest of your night."

**I am finished! I have finally completed a story after nearly two years on this site. I'm so proud of myself.**

**Anyway that is the end of my Power Ranger story The Question of Loyalty. I hope you enjoyed the story, and this chapter. The chapter placed a lot of characters in danger, but in the end everyone got a happy ending. You don't get much more, 'and they lived happily ever after' than this. As to why I ended the story like this, it was so that I can easily leap between stories without having to write out all the little scenes that I didn't want to write. As well as showing a nice happy ending.**

**All those things that Samuel and Kylee wanted to know are in fact sequel ides that I have for future stories. But you'll have to wait a while for those to come out.**

**1. Kimberly and Tommy both view their zords as family, specifically as an older sister and brother.**

**2. Amara is the name of Kimberly's pink crane Ninjetti Spirit. **

**3. Scorpions are in fact arachnids.**

**4. Zordon didn't let Jason and the others didn't hear that Tommy is the son of Rita and Zedd. That is for Tommy to explain.**

**Please leave a review and reply telling me what you think of the story and chapter, as well as what sequel you think I should write next. I hope you enjoyed this story, I know I enjoyed writing it.**

**Note: Be sure to leave your opinion on what story I should write next in you reviews. But also feel free to send me requests. **


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